An ecclesiastical biography : containing the lives of ancient fathers and modern divines, interspersed with notices of heretics and schismatics, forming a brief history of the church in every age

BSnyOO .H65 f845 V7A ^
Hook, Walter Farquhar, 179fi

1875. . ^'

An ecclesiastical biograph5^

AN

ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY,

CONTAINING THE

ILtbes of Ancient ffat^tx^ anti iiHo^crn HPibines,

[NTER9PEKSED WITH NOTICES OF

BERETZCS AND SCHISMATXCS,

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN EVERY AGE.

WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D.

VICAR OF LEEDS.

VOL. IV.

LONDON :

F. AND J. RIVINGTON ;

PARKER, OXFORD ; J. AND J. J. DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE ;

T. HARRISON, LEEDS.

1848.

G. TRAWSHAW, TRINTER, LEEDS.

PREFACE.

The present Volume of the Ecclesiastical Biography is
perhaps the most interesting of the series, as the Reader
will at once perceive, when he refers to the names of
those Fathers and Divines of whom the Biography is
given.

Several important portions of Ecclesiastical Histoi-y
are, under some of the Lives, brought before the Reader:
in the Life of St. Cyprian he will observe the freedom
of the Primitive Church, from the dominion of the see
of Rome ; in the Lives of St. Clement, St. Chrysostom,
Epiphanius, and Dionysius, he will gain some insight
into the practices of the Early Church ; and he will find
a History of the Nestorian Controversy under the head of
St. Cyril of Alexandria, a controversy of much importance
in the present age, when many are unconsciously Nesto-
rian s, who account themselves Orthodox.

The History of our Church before the Reformation is
illustrated in the Lives of Cuthbert, Columba, Dunstan,
St. Edmund, Courtney, and Colet ; and of the early years
of the Reformation, in that of Cranmer. The Articles on
Dominic, Erasmus, Eck, and Compton, will be interest-

iDg to those who are investigating the character and
pretensions of Romanism ; and in the History of the
Remonstrants, which is given in the Life of Ej^iscopius,
is displayed the persecuting and intolerant temper which
seems to be inherent in Calvinism.

For the Life of St. Cyprian, the Reader is indebted to
the Rev. G. A. Poole. For the other Lives the Compiler
is responsible.

The Work is still continued in Numbers, as many
persons prefer receiving it as a Monthly Periodical, in
which shape they can easily peruse the whole work.

The object of this Work is to supply the Reader with
an Ecclesiastical History, in a form which will admit of
easy reference. Although the labour is of a humble
character, still it is considerable ; and the contribution
of Articles, by persons competent to prepare them, will
be gratefully received, as the work has become much
more extensive than was originally contemplated, and has
hitherto been conducted without help.

VICARAGE, LEEDS

Jan. 12th, 1848.

ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY.

CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM.

William Chillingworth was the son of William
Chillingworth, citizen, afterw^ards mayor of Oxford, and
was born there in October, 1602. He was baptized on the
last of that month, the celebrated William Laud, then
fellow of St. John's College, being one of his sponsors.
After he had been educated in grammar learning at a
private school in Oxford, he was admitted a scholar of
Trinity College, in 1618, and was elected fellow in 1628.
He studied divinity and geometry, and showed some skill
in versification. The conversation and study of the uni-
versity scholars, in his time, turned chiefly upon the con-
troversies between the churches of England and Rome,
occasioned by the liberty allowed the Romish priests by
James I. and Charles I. ; several of whom lived at, or
near, Oxford, and made frequent attempts to pervert the
young men. Of these Jesuits, the most famous was John
Fisher, alias John Perse ; and Chillingworth being ac-
counted a very ingenious man, Fisher earnestly sought his
society. Their conversation soon turned upon the points
controverted between the two Churches, but particularly
on the necessity of an infallible living judge in matters of
faith. Chillingworth unable to answer the argimients of
the Jesuit on this head, was brought to believe that this
judge was to be found only in the Church of Rome, which,

VOL IV. A

2 CHILLINGWORTH.

therefore, must be the true Church, out of which there
could be no salvation. Upon this he forsook the com-
munion of the Church of England, and embraced the
Romish religion. In order to secure hi^ conquest, Fisher
persuaded Chillingworth to go to the college of the Jesuits
at Douay ; and he was desired to set down in writing the
motives or reasons which had engaged him to embrace the
Romish rehgion. But his godfather, Laud, who was then
Bishop of London, hearing of this affair, and being ex-
tremely concerned at it, wrote to him ; and, Chillingworth's
answer expressing much moderation, candour, and impar-
tiality, that prelate continued to correspond with him, and
to press him with several arguments against the doctrine
and practice of the Romanists. This set Chillingworth
upon a new enquiry, which had the desired effect. But
the place where he was not being suitable to the state of a
free and impartial enquirer, he resolved to come back to
England, and left Douay in 1631, after a short stay there.
Upon his return into England, he was received with great
kindness and affection by Bishop Laud, who approved his
design of retiring to Oxford, of which university that pre-
late was then chancellor, in order to complete the im-
portant work he was upon, a free enquiry into religion.
At last, after a thorough examination, the protestant prin-
ciples appearing to him the most agreeable to the holy
Scripture and reason, he declared for them ; and having
fully discovered the sophistry of the arguments, which had
induced him to go over to the Church of Rome, he wrote
a paper about the year 1634 to confute them, but did not
think proper to publish it. This paper is now lost ; for
though we have a paper of his upon the same subject,
which was first published in 1687, among the additional
discourses of Chillingworth, yet it seems to have been
written on some other occasion, probably at the desire of
some of his friends.

That ChillingwTjrth's return to the Church of England
was owing to Bishop Laud, appears from that prelate's

CHILLINGWORTH. 3

appeal to the letters, which passed between him and
Chillingworth ; which appeal was made in his speech
before the Lords at his trial, in order to vindicate himself
from the charge of Popery. " Mr. Chillingworth s learn-
ing and ability/' says he, " are sufficiently known to ail
your lordships. He was gone and settled at Douay. My
letters brought him back, and he lived and died a de-
fender of the Church of England. And that this is so,
your lordships cannot but know; for Mr. Prynne took
away my letters, and all the papers which concerned him,
and they were examined at the committee."

As Chillingworth, in forsaking the Church of England,
as well as in returning to it, was solely influenced by a
love of truth, so, upon the same principles, even after his
return to Protestantism, he thought it incumbent upon
him to re-examine the grounds of it. This appears by a
letter he wrote to Dr. Sheldon, containing some scruples
he had about leaving the Church of Rome, and returning
to the Church of England : and these scruples, which he
declared ingenuously to his friends, seem to have occa-
sioned a report, but it was a very false and groundless
one, that he had turned papist a second time, and then
protestant again. His return to the protestant religion
making a great deal of noise, he became engaged in seve-
ral disputes with those of the Romish religion ; and par-
ticularly with Mr. John Lewgar, Mr. John Floyd a Jesuit,
who went under the name of Daniel, or Dan. a Jesu,
and Mr. White. Mr. Lewgar, a great zealot for the
Church of Rome, and one who had been an intimate
friend of our author, as soon as he heard of his return to
the Church of England, sent him a very angry and
abusive letter ; to which Chillingworth returned a mild
and affectionate answer, in the course of which he
observes, that it seems to him very strange and not far
from a prodigy, that this doctrine of the Roman churches
being the guide of faith, or having the privilege of infalli-
bility, if it be true doctrine, should not be known to the
Evangelists, to the Apostles, and to the primitive Church,

4 CHILLINGWORTH.

AS he shews it was not ; and concludes thus : " All these
thin,i^s, says he, and many more are very strange to me, if
the infallibility of the Roman Church be indeed and were
always by Christians acknowledged the foundation of our
faith : and therefore I beseech you pardon me, if I choose
to build mine upon one that is much firmer and safer,
and lies open to none of these objections, which is Scrip-
ture and universal Tradition ; and if one that is of this
faith may have leave to do so ; I will subscribe with hand
and heart, your very loving and tine friend," &c.

Lewgar was so far softened by this letter, that he had
an interview with his old friend. They had a conference
upon religion before Skinner and Sheldon ; and we have
a paper of Chillingworth printed among the additional
discourses above-mentioned, which seems to contain the
abstract or summary of their dispute. Besides tlie pieces
already mentioned, he wrote one to demonstrate, that
" the doctrine of infallibility is neither evident of itself,
nor grounded upon certain and infallible reasons, nor
warranted by any passage of Scripture." And in two
other papers, he shews that the Church of Rome had
formerly erred; first, "by admitting of infants to the
Eucharist, and holding, that without it they could not be
saved ;" and secondly, " by teaching the doctrine of the
Millenaries, viz : that before the world's end Chnst shall
reign upon the earth 1000 years, and that the saints
should live under Him in all holiness and happiness ;"
both which doctrines are condemned as false and heretical
by the present Church of Rome. He wrote also a short
letter, in answer to some objections by one of his friends,
in which he shews, that " neither the fathers nor the
councils are infallible witnesses of tradition ; and that the
infallibility of the Church of Ptome must first of all be
proved from Scripture." Lastly, he wrote an answer to
some passages in the dialogues published under the name
of Rushworth. In 1635 he was engaged in a work which
gave him a far greater opportunity to confute the princi-
ples of the Church of Rome, and to vindicate the religion

CHILLINGWORTH. i>

of Protestants. A Jesuit called Edward Knott, though his
true name was Matthias Wilson, had published in 1630
a little book called " Charity mistaken, with the want
whereof Catholics are unjustly charged, for affirming, as
they do with grief, that protestancy unrepented destroys
salvation." This was answered by Dr. Potter, provost of
Queen's College, Oxford, in 1633, in a tract entitled,
" Want of charity justly charged on all such Romanists as
dare without truth or modesty affirm, that protestancy
destroys salvation." The Jesuit in 1634 published an
answer, called " Mercy and truth, or charity maintained

by Catholics : with the want whereof they are

unjustly charged, for affirming that protestancy destroyeth
salvation." Knott being informed of Chillingworth's in-
tention to reply to this, resolved to prejudice the public
both against the author and his book, in a pamphlet
called " A direction to be observed by N.N. if he means
to proceed in answering the book entitled Mercy and
Truth, &c., printed in 1636, permissu superiorum :" in
which he makes no scruple to represent Chillingworth as
a Socinian, a charge which has been since brought against
him with more etfect. Chillingvvorth's answer to Knott
was very nearly finished in the beginning of 1637, when
Laud, who knew our author s freedom in delivering his
thoughts, and was under some apprehension he might
indulge it too much in his book, recommended the revisal
of it to Dr. Prideaux, professor of divinity at Oxford,
afterwards Bishop of Worcester ; and desired it might be
published with his approbation annexed to it. Dr. Baylie,
vice-chancellor, and Dr. Fell, Lady Margaret's professor in
divinity, also examined the book ; and at the end of the
year it was published, with their approbation, under this
title ; " The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salva-
tion : or, an answer to a book entitled Mercy and Truth,
or Charity maintained by Catholics, which pretends to
prove the contrary."

In this work he was successful in his iittack upon
a2

f. CHILLING WORTH.

Komanisin. but laid himself sadly open to triumphant
retaliation, by his taking too wide ground. The
Church of England can successfully maintain her ground
against the Church of Rome : but when the dispute
is between Romanism and Protestantism in general,
it is, to say the least of it, a drawn battle. It was
in this book that he propounded the ultra-protestant
fallacy of the Bible and the Bible only being the religion
of Protestants. TVhat he meant by the religion of Pro-
testants he expresses thus : " When I say the religion of
Protestants is in prudence to be preferred before yours :
as on the one side I do not understand by your religion,
the doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius, or any other
private man amongst you, nor the doctrine of the Sor-
bonne, or of the Jesuits, or of the Dominicans, or of any
other particular company among you, but that wherein
you all agi'ee, or profess to agree, the doctrine of the
council of Trent : so accordingly on the other side, by the
religion of Protestants, I do not understand the doctrine
of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon : nor the confession
of Augusta, or Geneva, nor the catechism of Heidelberg,
nor the articles of the Church of England, no, nor the
Harmony of Protestant Confessions ; but that wherein
they all agree, and which they all subscribe with a greater
harmony, as a perfect rule of their faith and actions, that
is, the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the
religion of Protestants." "I am fully assured," he says
in another place, " that God does not, and therefore man
ought not to require any more of any man than this, to
believe the Scripture to be Gods word, to endeavour to
find the tme sense of it, and to live acccording to it."

This work of Chilling\vorth's has been by some over-
praised, and by others unduly depreciated. It should be
borne in mind that in such passages as those quoted
above, Chillingworth's object was not to point out the way
in which tmth is to be discovered, but what it is sufificient
to hold as the foundation when the heart is honest. His

CHILLIXGWOHTH. V

arfjument is intended to establish this position, that
taking Protestantism in general, it is as safe a way to
Balvation as Romanism : its general principle, of taking
the Bible only for the guide, is as definite and as safe as
that which rests on the infallibility of the Church of
Rome. But when the question arises, as to what is the
way to arrive at the truth, — how are we to understand the
real sense of Scripture, — then he takes very different
grounds, and in the preface, where this question was
started, he says, " I profess sincerely, that 1 believe all
those books of Scripture, which the Church of England
accounts canonical, to be the infallible word of God : I
believe all things evidently contained in them ; all things
evidentlv, or even probably, deducible from them : I
acknowledge all that to be heresy, which by the act of
parliament primo of Queen Elizabeth, is declared to be so,
and only to be so : and though in such points which may
be held diversly of divers men salva Fidei compage, I
would not take any mans liberty from him, and humbly
beseech all men, that they would not take mine from me I
Yet thus much I can say (which I hope vcill satisfy any
man of reason.) that whatsoever hath been held necessary
to salvation, either by the Catholic Church of all ages,
or by the consent of fathers, measured by Vincentius
Lyrinensis' rule, or is held necessaiy either by the Catholic
Church of this age, or by the consent of Protestants, or
even by the Church of England, that, against the Soci-
nians, and all others whatsoever, I do verily believe and
embrace.''

In the mean time. Chillingwoith had refused prefer-
ment, which was offered him by Sir Thomas Coventry,
keeper of the great seal, because his conscience would not
allow him to subscribe the thirty-nine articles. Consider-
ing that, by subscribing the articles, he must not only
declare willingly and ex animo, that every one of the
articles is agreeable to the word of God : but also that
the book of common prayer contained nothing contrary to
the word of God ; that it might lawfully be used ; and

8 GHILLINGWORTH.

that he himself would use it : and conceiving at the same
time, that, both in the articles, and in the book of common
prayer, there were some things repugnant to the Scripture,
or that were not lawful to be used, he fully resolved to
lose for ever all hopes of preferment, rather than comply
with the subscriptions required. One of his chief objec-
tions to the common prayer related to the Athanasian
Creed : the damnatory clauses of which he looked upon as
contrary to the word of God. Another objection concerned
the fourth commandment ; which, by the prayer subjoined
to it. Lord, have mercy upon us, &c., appeared to him to
be made a part of the Christian law, and consequently to
bind Christians to the observation of the Jewish Sabbath ;
and this he found contrary both to the doctrine of the
Gospel and to the sense of the Church of England, con-
cerning that holy day of the Christians called Sunday.
The true notion of that and other holy-days, and the
reasons for appointing them for the service of God, are thus
expressed in the act of parliament passed in the year 1552.
That act sets forth, that, " as at all times men be not so
mindful to laud and praise God, so ready to resort and
hear God's holy word, and to come to the holy communion,
and other laudal)le rites, which are to be observed in every
Christian congregation, as their bounden duty doth re-
quire : therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty,
and to help their infirmity, it hath been wholesomely pro-
vided, that there should be some certain times and days
appointed, wherein the Christians should cease from all
other kinds of labours, and should apply themselves only
and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works, properly per-
taining unto true religion and as these works are

both most commonly, and also may well be called God's
service, so the times appointed specially for the same, are
called holy-days, not for the matter or nature either of

the time or day (for so all days and times considered

are of like holiness) but for the nature and condition

of those godly and holy works.. »...whereunto such times
and days are sanctified and hallowed ; that is to say.

CHILLINGWORTH. 9

ficparalod from all profane uses, and dedicated and ap-
pointed, not unto any saint or creature, Vjut only unto God,
and his true worship."

And lest any hody should imagine that these holy-days
have been determined by the Scripture, it is added :
" Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain time
or definite number of days prescribed in holy Scripture,
but that the appointment both of the time, and also of
the number of the days is left by the authority of God's
word to the liberty of Christ's Church to be determined
and assigned orderly in every country, by the direction of
the rulers and ministers thereof, as they shall judge most
expedient to the true setting forth of God's glory, and the
edification of their people."

And that these judicious reflections do not relate to
holy-days or saint>days only, but also to Sundays or Lord's
days, is evident by what follows : " Be it therefore en-
acted that all the days hereafter mentioned shall be

kept, and commanded to be kept holy-days, and none
other ; that is to say, all Sundays in the year, the days of
the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
the Lpipliany, of the Purification of the Jilessed Virgin, of
Saint Matthew the Apostle, of the Annunciation of the
Blessed Virgin," &c. All the other holy-days now kept
are here named. By which it appears, that the Sunday is
rift otherwise ordered to be kept holy-day than these other
holy-days.

And in order to settle still more clearly the notion
people are to have of the Sunday and other holy-days, it is
further provided and enacted : " that it shall be lawful to
every husbandman, labourer, fisherman, and to all and
every other person and persons, of what estate, degree or
condition he or they be, upon the holy-days aforesaid, in
harvest, or at any other time in the year wVien necessity
shall require, to labour, ride, fish, or work any kind of
work, at their free wills and pleasure."

Which perfectly agrees with the injunctions of King
Edward VI., published in 1547 (five years before the

10 CHILLINGWORTH.

said act), wherein it is ordered, that *' all parsons, vicars,
and curates shall teach and declare unto their parishioners,
that they may with a safe and quiet conscience, in the
time of harvest, labour upon the holy and festival days,
and save that thing which God hath sent. And if for
any scrupulosity, or grudge of conscience, men should
euperstitiously abstain from working upon those days,
that they then should grievously offend and displease
God." These very words Queen Elizabeth inserted in her
injunctions published in 1559 : save only that after the
words quiet conscience, these are added, after their com-
mon prayer.

This shews the sense of the Church of England as to
the manner of observing the Christian Sabbath or Sunday
But then another difficulty arises as to the day itself, the
fourth commandment being thus : " Remember that thou
keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no
manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter,
thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and
the stranger that is within thy gate. For in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, aud all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore
the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it."
Mr. Chillingworth conceived that praying to God to
incline our hearts to keep this law, imported that the
Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday is still in foi'ce : which
he thought neither true, nor lawful to be said, and
consequently the Common Prayer Book unlawful to be
used.

This difficulty has embarrassed our divines. But
Chillingworth, at last, was convinced of the lav»'fulness of
declaring his assent and consent to the use of the Common
Prayer Book, as we shall see hereafter.

On this subject Chillingworth corresponded with
Dr. Sheldon, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. It
appears that several letters passed between them on the

CHILLING WORTH. 11

subject of conformity, and that Chillingworth objected to
the XXth Article, importing, "that the Church hath power
to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controver-
sies of faith.

2. "To the XlVth Article, that voluntary works besides
over and above God's commandments, which they call
works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arro-
gancy and impiety, &c. : which seemed to condemn the
doctrine of Evangelical Counsels, maintained by the
fathers, and by several eminent divines of the Church
of England, as Bishop Andrews, Bishop Morton, Bishop
Montague, &c.

3. "To the XXXIst Article, that the offering of Christ
once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and
satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original
and actual : and that there is none other satisfaction
for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of masses,
in which it was commonly said, that the priest did offer
Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of
pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits : scrupling, I presume the generality of the ex-
pressions contained in the first part of this article, and
disliking the w^ord blasphemous, which is the latter part
of it.

4. " To the Xlllth Article, that works done before the
grace of Christ, and the inspiration of His Spirit, are not
pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in
Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive
grace, (or as the school-authors say) deserve grace of con-
gruity : yea, rather for that they are not done as God
hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt
not but they have the nature of sin : which appeared to
him to confine God's grace within too narrow bounds, and
to exclude from salvation the most virtuous among the
pagans, &c.

5. " Lastly, he objected to the Articles in general, as an
imposition on men's consciences, much like that authority
which the Church of Rome assumes."

1^ CHILLINGWORTH.

To his objections Sheldon replied, with respect to
the XXth Article, that if " occasion require, the Church
hath power to establish ceremony or doctrine according to
Scripture, but not against the Scripture.

2. " To the XlVth Article, he desires him to consider,
that this article only condemns such Evangelical Counsels
as suppose a fulfilling of the law, and going beyond it, to
satisfy and merit for us, which the papists call works of
supererogation. And upon these reasons, says he, I pre-
sume did that reverend prelate Andrews, and that learned
Mountague, subscribe, when they publicly taught Evangeli-
cal Counsels in their writings.

3. *' To the XXXIst Article, that it was framed against
the popish doctrine of the mass, wherein it is pretended that
the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead ;
as another satisfaction for sin : there being no such offer-
ing of Christ in the Scripture, where he will find it once
offered for all. And that the consequences, which may be
drawn from transubstantiation, amount to little less than
blasphemy.

4 " To the Xlllth Article, he observes, that works done
by bare nature are not meiitorious de congruo : nature of
sin they must have, if sin be in them : and that unless he
be a downright Pelagian, he may give it a fair, and safe,
and true interpretation.

5. "To the objection agaiUvSt confessions of faith, or
articles of religion, he answers, that the end of these
general forms of peace, if capable of any construction, lies
against the papists. And he concludes by admonishing
him not to be too forward, nor possessed with a spirit of
contradiction : thus he might — The sentence is here broke
off — but no doubt Dr. Sheldon meant, that if Mr. Chilling-
worth would lay aside his mistaken scruples and objec-
tions ; he might then comply with the subscription
required, and enjoy the advantages of subscribing."

Maizeaux, the biographer of Chillingworth, illustrates
what Sheldon says of Evangelical Counsels, by the follow-
ing quotation from Montague's Appeal to Caesar :

CHILLINGWORTH. 13

*• I do believe there are," says he, *' and ever were,
Evangelical Counsels ; such as St. Paul mentions in his
Consilium autem do ; such as our Saviour pointed at and
directed unto his Qui potest capere capiat ; such as a man
may do or not do, without guilt of sin, or breach of law ;
but nothing less than such as the papists fabric up unto
themselves in their works of supererogation. It is an
error in divinity, not to put a difference between such
works, and works done upon counsel and advice. If any
man, not knowing or not considering the state of the
question, hath otherwise written, or preached, or taught,
what is that to me, or to the doctrine of the Church of
England? His ignorance, or fancy, or misunderstanding,
or misapplying, is not the doctrine of antiquity, which
with universal consent held Evangelical Counsels ; nor of
our Church, in which our Gamaliel hath told us ; Quis
nescit fieri a nobis multo libere, et quae a Deo non sunt
imperata voveri et reddi ? These promoters knew it not.
B. Morton in his Appeal saith (if he does not say true,
inform against him for it) that we allow the distinction of
precepts and counsels, lib. v. cap. iv. sect. 3. For his sake
excuse me from popery, who write no more than he did
before me : what in God's indulgence is a matter of coun-
sel?; in regard of strict justice, may come under precept."
Cap. iv. sect. v.

The scruples of Chillingworth to subscription were
known to his antagonist Knott, and furnished him with
an objection ; but the scruples had been overcome before
the religion of Protestants was published, as will have been
seen from a passage already quoted, and at the close of
the preface, he says, that " though he does not hold the
doctrine of all Protestants absolutely true, yet he holds it
free from all impiety, and from all error destructive of
salvation, or in itself damnable. And this he thinks, in
reason, may sufficiently qualify him for a maintainor of
this assertion, that Protestancy destroys not salvation."
Then he adds this remarkable declaration : " For the

VUL IV. B

14 CHILLING WORTH.

Church of England, I am persuaded, that the constant
doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox, that whosoever
beheves it, and hves according to it, undoubtedly he shall
be saved ; and there is no error in it which may necessi-
tate or warrant any man to disturb the peace, or renounce
the communion of it. This, in my opinion, says he, is
all intended by subscription ; and thus much, if you con-
ceive me not ready to subscribe, your charity, I assure
you, is much mistaken." Chillingworth expresses here,
not only his readiness to subscribe, but also what he con-
ceives to be the sense and intent of such a subscription :
which he now takes to be a subscription of peace or union^
and not of belief or assent, as he formerly thought it was.
When he had got the better of his scruples, he w^as pro-
moted to the chancellorship of Salisbury, with the prebend
of Brix worth, in Northamptonshire, annexed ; and, as
appears from the subscription- book of the church of Salis-
bury, upon July 20, 1638, he complied with the usual
subscription, in the manner just related. About the same
time he was appointed master of Wigston's hospital, in
Leicestershire. In 1646 he was deputed by the chapter
of Salisbury their proctor in convocation. He was zea-
lously attached to the royal party, and at the siege of
Gloucester, begun August 10, 1643, was present in the
Kings army, where he advised and directed the m: iking
certain engines for assaulting the town, after the manner
of the Roman iestudines cum joluteis, but which the success
of the enemy prevented him from employing. Soon after,
having accompanied the Lord Hopton, general of the
King's forces in the west, to Arundel Castle, in Sussex,
and choosing to repose himself in that garrison, on ac-
count of an indisposition occasioned by the severity of the
season, he was taken prisoner on the 9th of December,
1643, by the parliament forces under the command of
Sir William Waller. But his illness increasing, and not
being able to go to London with the garrison, he obtained
leave to be conveyed to Chichester ; where he was lodged

CHILLINGWORTH. 15

in the bishop's palace, and where, after a short illness, he
died. It was at Arundel Castle that he first met with
Cheynell (see Cheynell), at whose request he was removed
to Chichester, where that wild fanatic attended him con-
stantly, and treated him with as much compassion as
his uncharitable principles would permit. He is supposed
to have died on the 30th of January, 1644, and was
buried, according to his own desire, in the cathedral of
Chichester.

Chillingworth's loyalty made him look with a friendly
eye upon the doctrine of Episcopacy. He wrote a small
tract to shew that Episcopacy is not repugnant to the
government settled in the Church for perpetuity by the
Apostles. The occasion was this : Dr. Morton, Bishop of
Durham, having composed a treatise, entitled, The judg-
ment of Protestant Divines, of remote Churches, as well
such, as were the first Reformers of religion, as others,
after them, in behalf of episcopal degree in the Church :
his manuscript was sent to Archbishop Usher, who was
then at Oxford ; and he published it without the author's
name to it, and knowledge of it, under the title of Con-
fessions and Proofs of Protestant Divines of Reformed
Churches, that Episcopacy is in respect of the office
according to the word of God, and in respect of the use
the best. The learned Primate added to it a brief treatise
of his own, with his name prefixed before it, touching the
original of Bishops and Metropolitans. And in order to
complete that collection, Mr. Chillingworth furnished him
with the aforesaid tract, which being subjoined to the
other two, as a conclusion, was in titled. The Apostolical
Institution of Episcopacy ; deduced out of the premises
by W, C. This little piece has been reprinted several
times: "and I don't find," says Maizeaux, "anything
was published against it till of late. But whether it may
be easily confuted, the reader will judge by the ensuing
passages."

"If we abstract from Episcopal government," says
Mr. Chillingworth, " all axjcidentals, and consider only

16 CHILLINGWORTH.

what is essential and necessary to it ; we shall find in it
no more but this. An appointment of one man of
emioent sanctity and sufficiency to have the care of all the
churches, within a certain precinct or diocese ; and fur-
nishing him with authority, not absolute or arbitrary, but
regulated and bounded by laws, and moderated by join-
ing to him a convenient number of assistants. To the
intent that all the churches under him may be provided
of good and able pastors : and that both of pastors and
people conformity to the laws and performance of their
duties may be required, under penalties, not left to dis-
cretion, but by law appointed.

" To this kind of government," pursues he, " I am not
by any particular interest so devoted as to think it ought
to be maintained, either in opposition to Apostolic institu-
tion, or to the much desired reformation of men s lives,
and restoration of primitive discipline, or to any law or
precept of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: for that
were to maintain a means contrary to the end : for obedi-
ence to our Saviour is the end for which church govern-
ment is appointed. But if it may be demonstrated, or
made much more probable than the contrary, as I verily
think it may : 1. That it is not repugnant to the govern-
ment settled in and for the Church by the Apostles:
2. That it is as compilable with the reformation of any
evil, which we desire to reform either in Church or State,
or the introduction of any good which we desire to intro-
duce, as any other kind of government : and 3. That
there is no law, no record of our Saviour against it : then
I hope it will not be thought an unreasonable motion, if
we humbly desire those that are in authority, especially
the high court of parliament, that it may not be sacrificed
to clamour, or overborne by violence : and though (which
God forbid) the greater part of the multitude should cry.
Crucify, crucify, yet our governors would be so full of
justice and courage, as not to give it up until they per-
fectly understand concerning Episcopacy itself. Quid mali
fecit. I shall speak at this time only of the first of these

CHISHULL. 17

three points ; that Episcopacy is not repugnant to the
government settled in the Church for perpetuity by the
Apostles. Whereof I conceive this which follows as clear
a demonstration as any thing of this nature is capable
of," &c.

What he says afterw^ards upon that point he resumes
thus in the conclusion : " Episcopal government is ac-
knowledged to have been universally received in the
church presently after the Apostles' times. Between the
Apostles' times and this presently after, there was not
time enough for, nor possibility of so great an alteration.
And therefore there was no such alteration as is pretended.
And therefore Episcopacy, being confessed to be so an-
cient and catholic, must be granted also to be apostolic.
Quod erat demonstrandum." — Maizeaux. Birch.

CHISHULL, EDMUND.

Edmund Chishull was born at Eyworth in Bedford-
shire, and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
where he took his degree of master of arts in 1693, pre-
viously to which he published a Latin poem on the battle
of La Hogue. In 1698 he became chaplain to the factory
at Smyrna, where he continued till 1702. In 1705 he
was admitted to his degree of B.D., and the next year he
wrote an answer to Mr. Dodwell on the immortality of
the soul. In 1707 he zealously exposed the enthusiastic
absiTrdities of the French prophets, in a sermon, on the
28rd of November, at Seijeant's Inn chapel, in Chancery-
lane. On the 1st of September, 1708, he w^as presented
to the vicarage of Walthamstow, in Essex; and in 1711
he was appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to the
Queen. He now became distinguished for his researches
in classical antiquities, and in 1721 he published, Inscrip-
tio Sigaea antiquissima BOTSTPO^HAON exarata. Com-
mentario eam Historico-Grammatico-Gritico iliustravit
b2

18 CHOISY.

Edrmindus ChishuU, S.T.B. Regiae Majestati a sacris,
folio. This was followed by Notarum ad Inscriptionem
Sigaeam appendicula ; addita a Sigseo altera ADtiochi
Soteris inscriptione, folio, in fifteen pages, without a date.
Both these pieces were afterwards incorporated in his
Antiquitaties Asiaticae. When Dr. Mead, in 1724, pub-
lished his Harveian oration, delivered in the preceding
year at the Royal College of Physicians, Mr. Chishull
added to it, by way of appendix, Dissertatio de Nummis
quibusdam aSmyrnaeis in Medicorum Honorem percussis.
In 1728 appeared, in folio, his great work, Antiquitates
Asiaticae Christianam ^Eram antecedentes ; ex primariis
Monumentis Graecis descriptse, Latine versae, Notisque et
Commentariis illustratae. Accedit Monumentum Latinum
Ancyranum. The work contains a collection of inscrip-
tions made by consul Sherard, Dr. Picenini, and Dr. Lisle,
afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph. Chishull added to the
Antiquitates Asiaticae two small pieces which he had
before publihsed, viz: Conjectanea de Nummo CKnni
inscripto, and Iter Asias Poeticum, addressed to the
Rev. John Horn. In 1731 he was presented to the
rectory of South-church in Essex. He died in 1733.
Dr. Mead testified his regard for the memory of Chishull
by publishing, in 1747, his travels in Turkey, and back
to England, folio. — Biog. Brit. Nichols s Bowyer.

CHOISY, FRANCIS TIMOLEON DE.

Fbancis Timoleon de Choisy was born in Paris, in
1644. His youth was very irregular, and so indeed were
his maturer years ; nevertheless, notwithstanding the
boasted discipline of Roman Catholic Churches, he was
highly preferred, and that too, through the interest of the
French court, the patronage of which, especially of Mon-
sieur, the brother of Louis XIV., those very irregularities
procured him. He became dean of the cathedral at

CHRISTOPHERSON. 1 9

Bayeaux, and a member of the French academy. He was
sent to the King of Siam, with the ChevaUer de Chaumont
in 1685, and was ordained priest in the Indies by the
apostoHcal vicar. He died in 17-^4. His principal works
are: — 1. Quatre Dialogues sur llmmortalite de I'Ame,
&c. which he wrote with M. Dangeau, l'2mo. 2. Relation
du Voyage de Siam, 12mo. 3. Histoires de Piete et de
Morale, 2 vols, 12mo. 4. Hist, de TEglise, 11 vols, in 4to,
and in 12mo. 5. La Vie de David, avec une Interpre-
tation des Pseaumes, 4to, 6. The Lives of Solomon ; of
St. Louis, 4to ; of Philip de Valois, and of King John,
4to; of Charles V. 4to ; and of Charles VL 4to ; and of
Mad. de Miramion, 12mo; his Memoirs, l*2mo. — lyAlem-
bert. Moreri.

CHRTSTOPHERSON, JOHN.

John Christopherson was a native of Lancashire, and
was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was
one of the first fellows of Trinity College, being appointed
in 1546. He shortly after became master of that house.
During the reign of Edward VL, being adverse to the
reformation party then in power, he resided abroad, being
supported by his college. On the accession of Mary he
returned to England, and in October, 1554, he was sent
by Bonner to Cambridge, to enforce the observation of
three articles, which it seems w^ere not so exactly regarded
before ;

I. That every scholar should wear his apparel according
to his degree in the schools.

II. Touching the pronunciation of the Greek tongue.
In which, no question, the university follow^ed Sir John
Cheke's reformed and correct way of reading and sounding
it; though this Gardiner, their chancellor, in King
Henry's days, had sent a peremptory order forbidding it.
But he being under a cloud in the reign of King Edward,
Cheke's way prevailed again. And so now it was to be
forbidden again.

\
20 CHRISTOPHERSON.

III. That every preacher there should declare the whole
style of the King and Queen in their sermons.

Upon these and several other orders, many students
left the university. Some were thrust out of their fellow-
ships ; some miserably handled. Four and twenty places
in St. John's College became vacant, and others more
ignorant put in their rooms.

He also published an exhortation upon occasion of the
late insurrection directed to all men to take heed of rebel-
lion, wherein are set down the causes which commonly
lead men to rebel, and shewing there was no cause that
ought to move a man thereto. It was printed in 8vo by
Cawood. He was soon after made dean of Norwich, and
taking an active part against the reformers, has the dis-
credit of being associated with Bonner, through whose
influence he was appointed examiner of heretics. While
the Elect of Chichester, to which see he was consecrated
in 1557, he acted under a commission from Cardinal Pole,
and went to Cambridge with two other prelates, when,
after a formal process, they caused the body of Martin
Bucer to be disinterred and burnt. He was one of the
prelates who sat in judgment upon the martyr Philpot,
and w^hen he had reproached him with ignorance of the
doctors, Philpot told the bishop, " that it was a shame for
them to wrest and wreath the doctors as they did, to
maintain a false religion : and that the doctors were alto-
gether against them, if they took them aright : and that it
was indeed their false packing of doctors together had
given him and others occasion to look upon them : where-
by we find you," said he, " shameful liars, and misrepre-
senters of the ancient doctors."

He died in 1658, and was buried at Christ Church,
London, with all the popish ceremonies. A great banner
was carried of the arms of the see of Chichester, and his
own arms ; and four banners of saints. Five bishops did
offer at the mass, and two sung mass. And after, all
retiring from the place of burial, were entertained at a
great dinner. He translated Philo Judfeus into Latin,

CHRYSOSTOM. 21

Antwerp, 1558, 4to, and also the ecclesiastical histories of
Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Evagrius, and Theodoret,
Louvain, 1570, 8vo ; Cologne, 1570, fol.

Valesius, in his preface to Eusebius, says, that, compared
with Ruffinus and Musculus, who had translated these
historians before him, Christopherson may be reckoned
a diligent and learned man, but that he is far from de-
serving the character of a good translator ; that his style
is impure, and full of barbarisms ; that his periods are
long and perplexed; that he has frequently acted the
commentator, rather than the translator ; that he has en-
larged and retrenched at pleasure ; that he has transposed
the sense oftentimes, and has not always preserved the
distinction even of chapters. The learned Huet has
passed the same censure on him, in his book De Inter-
pretatione. Hence Baronius, among others, has often been
misled by him. Christopherson wrote, also, about the
year 1546, the tragedy of Jephthah, both in Latin and
Greek, dedicated to Henry YIII., which was most prO"
bably a Christmas play for Trinity College. — Strype.

CHKYSOSTOM, ST. JOHN.

John, surnamed Chkysostom, or the Golden Mouth,
from his eloquence, was born at iVntioch, about a.d. 347,
of a wealthy family. He was piously educated by his
widowed mother, Anthusa, a woman worthy to take rank
wath Monica, the mother of Augustine, and Nouna, the
mother of St. Gregory Nazianzen. He studied under
Libenius, the celebrated teacher of eloquence and litera-
ture at Antioch. He afterwards devoted himself to the
avocations of the Forum, and practised as an advocate.
But his mind w^as bent upon higher studies, and in the
study of sacred literature he was encouraged and assisted
by Meletius, his bishop, who, at the same time, pre-
pared him for the Sacrament of Baptism. In those days>
many parents, through a mistaken awe of the Sacrament,

n CHRYSOSTOM.

neglected to have their children baptized in infancy,
and such had been the mistaken conduct of Anthusa.
After three years' instruction under Meletius, Chrysostom
was baptized by that bishop, and soon after was ordained
as a reader.

It was the custom of that day for couverts to choose
between the ecclesiastical and monastic state, according to
their inclinations to an active or retired life. Many of the
young men of Antioch thus spiritually awakened, con-
nected themselves with the monks who lived in cells upon
the hills near the city, and who occupied themselves by
prayer and devotional music, by religious meditation, the
study of the sacred writings, and various manual occupa-
tions. The enthusiasm of that age tended to asceticism,
just as the religious enthusiasm of the present age tends
to excitement, self-indulgence, and the violent advocacy
of human systems of theology, such as Calvinism. The
young mind of St. Chrysostom was ascetic, and if he had
been his own master, he would have joined the monks ;
but his mother, dreading to be separated from her son,
endeavoured to retain him in her house, and without con-
sulting him, provided for all his personal wants, that he
might follow the bent of his mind the more undisturbed.
On the other hand his friend Basil, the companion of
his youthful studies, having chosen a path of life different
from his own, and having joined the monks, exerted him-
self in every way to bring over Chrysostom to his views.
This, however, his mother strove to prevent, representing
to him, that he was the only comfort of her old age, and
that there was no sacrifice she had not made for his
sake ; and without doubt he was influenced by these
representations.

In this retirement he was zealously occupied by the
study of the Bible. His spiritual father, Meletius, could
no longer be his guide and instructor ; he had been
exiled p. c. o70, by the Emperor Yalens, who persecuted
many of the opponents of Arianism, and he passed several
years in banishment. His place was supplied by the

CHRYSOSTOM. 23

presbyters Eyagrius and Diodorus, the latter of whom was
afterwards known as Bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia, and who
obtained great esteem by his learning and persevering
zeal in the defence of divine truth against heathens and
heretics, tie w^andered unwearied through the old town
of Antioch on the further side of the Orontes, where the
congregation of Meletius had fixed their seat, to confirm
men in the true faith. He would not accept any settled
income with his office ; but he was received first in one
house and then in another, and was content to have his
daily need relieved by the love of those, for whose salvation
he laboured amid so many perils He also couferred a
great benefit upon the Church of this district, by assem-
bling around him, as the presbyters Dorotheus and Lucia-
nus had done at the latter end of the third century, a
circle of young men, whose religious education he superin-
tended. In this union Chrysostom and Theodorus were
alike conspicuous, the latter of whom subsequently distin-
guished himself as the successor of Diodorus, both in this
and in the episcopal office. We may suppose that the
influence exercised by Diodorus over Chrysostom must
have been great, when we remember that Diodorus above
all others contributed to form that Antiochian school so
remarkably distinguished by the character of its theology,
and which was perfected by Theodoras. In this school
Chrysostom acquired that simple, sound, grammatic and
historical mode of interpreting the Bible, in which he
suffered himself to be guided and determined by its spirit,
rather than by that capricious system of allegory adopted
by others, which gave to the inspired volume a sense
foreign to it, and substituted for its simplicity far-fetched
and specious meanings, supposed to lie concealed within
it. Thus from the simple w^ord did Chrysostom derive
the rich treasures which are to be met with in his homilies ;
and thus was formed the sober, practical Christianity
which afterwards rendered him so eminent, and which is
always to be found with those, who in singleness of heart
seek from the fountain source a knowledge of divine truth.

24 CHRYSOSTOM.

Meanwhile the fame of his pious zeal and ability ex-
tended far and wide, and raised in bishops and in flocks a
wish to draw him from retirement, and win him to a
higher office of the Church. Many sought to persuade
both him and his friend Basil to undertake episcopal
ministries, although thirty was the age prescribed by the
law, and they were not above twenty- six years old. Both
agreed to act together on a common plan, and to decline
any invitation of this nature ; because they entertained too
high an idea of the importance and duties of the office, to
consider themselves fitted for it. But the opinion, which
Chrysostom held of his friend, totally differed from that,
which he formed of himself. While he was only conscious
of his own defects, he remarked qualities in his friend,
which rendered him more worthy of the episcopal dignity,
than many others of his contemporaries and fellow coun-
trymen ; and he thought himself justified in a deception,
in order to place his friend in such a sphere of action.
Basil was elected Bishop, and received consecration under
the impression, that his friend had also received it, ac-
cording to their agreement ; but Chrysostom had contrived
to withdraw himself from the charge. In conferences with
Basil, he had to defend himself against the accusation of
having violated friendship ; and one word giving rise to
another, Chrysostom disclosed to him his views concerning
the dignity and duties of the episcopal office ; but at the
same time he strove to encourage him in his undertak-
ing. These conversations gave occasion afterwards to
one of Chrysostom's most important writings, the De
Sacerdotio.

On his mothers death Chrysostom put in execution
his favourite project of joining the monks near Antioch,
but, in 380, his health having been injured by his
studies and his austerities, he returned to the city,
and he was in 384 ordained deacon by Meletius; by
whose successor, Flavian, he was ordained priest five
years afterwards, and then his duties .as a preacher
commenced.

CHRYSOSTOM. 25

Although he tells us that some persons were displeased
at the slowness of his speech, his preaching at Antioch
was attended with the best results, and he himself states
to us the principle upon which he prepared his discourses,
when he says, " that which is plain will benefit the simple,
and that w^hich is deep will edify those whose perception
is more acute. The table must be covered with a variety
of dishes, because the guests have diiferent tastes." Thus
he provided much for the many, and a little for the few.
One piece of advice that he gave to his congregation
sounds strange to modern ears, " since there are some so
weak that they cannot follow the discourse its whole
length, I advise them as soon as they have heard as much
instruction as they are able to receive, to depart." This
is better, perhaps, than the modern practice of falling
asleep. The following passage shews tliat the custom of
leaving the church when the sermon was concluded, and
before the Eucharist was administered, prevailed in his
time, and it also shews that the Romish custom of non-
communicants remaining while the holy Sacrament is
administered, did not at that time exist.

" Often in that sacred hour," he said, "have I looked
around for this vast multitude, which is now assembled
here, and listening with such great attention, but found
them not ; and deeply did I lament, that ye so earnestly
and eagerly listened to your fellow-servant, who now ad-
dresseth you, thronging each other and remaining to the
last, but, when Christ was about to appear in His Holy
Supper, that the church should be deserted. Your hurry-
ing away the moment my discourse is ended is a proof,
that none of the words addressed to you have been received
and treasured up in your hearts ; or, fixed in your souls,
they would surely have detained you, and led you to receive
the holiest of mysteries with increased veneration. But
now, when the preacher hath ceased, ye depart without
benefit, as if ye had listened to a player upon the harp.
And what is the cold excuse of the many ? We can pray,

VOL IT. c

S6 CHRYSOSTOM.

say they, at home ; but we canoot there receive instruction
and hear the sermon. Ye err; — ye can truly pray at
home, but not as ye can pray in the church, where so
great a number of the fathers are met together, and where
so many voices unite to raise a prayer to God. Ye find
here what ye cannot find at home — the hamiony of souls,
the accord of voices, the bond of love^ the prayers of the
priests; for therefore do the priests preside, that the
feeble prayers of the multitude, borne aloft by their more
powerful petitions, may reach together unto heaven. And
what advantage th the sermon, if it be not joined with
prayer? First, prayer; then, the word. Thus say the
Apostles : ' We will give ourselves continually to prayer,
and to the ministry of the word.' And thus did Paul
commence his epistles with prayer, that he might enkindle
with the sparks of prayer the fire of speech. If ye accus-
tom yourselves to pray with a proper earnestness, ye will
not need the instruction of your fellow-servant, but God
Himself will enlighten your minds without a mediator."
In another sermon, he says, that the consciousness of
being beloved by so great a community inspired him with
much confidence, because on that account he felt sure of
their intercession. The worth of this intercession might
be seen in the instance of the Apostle Paul, since that
great Apostle declared, that he needed the intercession of
his disciples. He then comments upon the powerful in-
fluence of a common prayer. He said not this on his own
account, but to stimulate their zeal for a communion in
the prayers of the Church. To the objection : Can I not
pray at home ? he answered : " That, indeed, thou canst ;
but prayer hath not so great a power, as when it is offered
up in communion with thy brethren; when the whole
body of the congregation, out of one heart and with one
voice, poureth forth the request, in the presence of the
priests, who bear aloft the common prayers of the multi-
tude." We will compare with this extract a passage from
one of his sermons preached at Constantinople, in which

CHRYSOSTOM. 27

he expresses himself yet more strongly upon this point.
He answered those, who inquired: "Wherefore should we
go to church, if we can hear no preacher there ? — This
delusion is your destruction. Wherefore do we need
a preacher ? The necessity hath arisen from our own
negligence. For what need have we of a sermon ? In
the Holy Scriptures all is clear and plain ; every thing
necessary is therein manifest. But because ye are
listeners, seeking entertainment, ye long so much for
the sermon."

He attached great value to the prayers of the old Antio-
chian litui'gy, drawn from the depths of Christian experi-
ence, and clothed for the most part in biblical language ;
and he frequently drew the attention of his congregation
to them in his sermons. We have already remarked the
fruitful manner, in which he availed himself of these
prayers, and applied them ; and we will further illustrate
this by a few examples. One of his homilies was solely
devoted to an explanation of the beautiful church prayer
for the catechumens, and he availed himself of it to shew
in what consisted a fit preparation for baptism, and a
lively faith. He was often compelled to remark, how
many listened mechanically to these beautiful forms of
hturgy, scarcely conscious of their import, and to notice
that deficiency of piety, which betrayed itself in their
pressing against each otlier during the prayers of the
Church, and during the celebration of the Holy Commu-
nion, that they might depart earlier without waiting for
the termination of the prayers and the solemn dismissal
of the congregation. He frequently delivered strong
censures upon this conduct. On one occasion, he said ;
" Hear these words of Christ, ye, who have again departed
before the last prayer offered up after the celebration of
the Holy Communion : Christ gave thanks to God before
He distributed the supper among His disciples, that we
also might give thanks ; and after He had distributed it
among them. He sung a hymn to the praise of God, that
we likewise might do the same." And on the festival of

28 CHRYSOSTOM.

the holy Epiphany, he says : " Let us, then, to-day,
endeavour to correct a sin openly committed by all. Would
ye know what this sin is ? It is the not approaching the
Lord's table with fear and trembling, but stamping,
striking, swelling with wrath, screaming, insulting, and
pushing those near to you, full of passion and turbulence.
Tell me, why are ye thus tumultuous ? Wherefore hasten
ye ? Doth business summon you ? Can ye think, in that
hour, of worldly affairs ? Can ye then remember, that ye
are upon earth — deem yourselves dwelling among men ?
Doth it not betray a heart of stone, to recollect in that
moment that ye are standing upon earth, and not amid
the choirs of angels, with whom ye have resounded aloft
that holy hymn ? with whom ye have chaunted that song
of triumph unto God ? Shall I tell you whence this dis-
order and noise proceed ? Because we do not close the
doors during the whole time of divine service, but permit
you,' before the last prayer of thanksgiving is offered up,
to rise suddenly, and depart home. This, of itself^ is an
act of great contempt. While Christ is present, while the
angels are standing around, w4iile that holy table is spread
before you, while your brethren are yet partaking of the
Holy Supper, — ye hasten away. Were ye invited to a
feast, though your own hunger were appeased, ye would
not venture to absent yourselves, so long as the other
guests are reclining at the table." He likewise exhorted
them to join with devotion in these prayers of the
Church ; and, according to his custom, he sought, by
using the forms of the liturgy, to impress his exhorta-
tions deeper upon their minds : " Even the words," he
said, " of the deacon, calling upon all: ' Let us stand up,
as it beseemeth us,' are not introduced without a meaning,
but that we should raise our grovelling thoughts, and,
throwing off the fetters of earthly cares, raise our souls to
God. That this is signified — that these words regard not
the body, but the soul, we may learn from Paul, who in
like manner useth this mode of speech ; for, writing to
fallen and desponding men, he saith : * Wherefore lift up

CHRYSOSTOM. 29

the hands which haog down, and the feeble knees.' What
then ? Shall we saj, that he speaketh of the hands and
knees of the body ? Certainly not ; for he addresseth not
runners, nor pugilists ; but he exhorteth them by these
words to raise the power of their souls, laid prostrate by
temptations. Consider near whom thou standest, — that
with the cherubim themselves thou art about to call upon
God. Examine the assembled choir, and it will suffice to
excite thy watchfulness, when thou thinkest, that, bearing
about with thee a body, and held together by flesh, thou
art deemed worthy of singing hymns to the common Lord
of all, in company with the spiritual powers. Let no one,
then, with a faint heart take part in these sacred hymns ;
let no one in that season entertain a wordly thought ; but,
having banished all earthly things from his mind, and
transferred himself entirely to heaven, as if standing near
the very throne of glory, and flying amid the seraphim, let
him send forth that holiest of hymns to the God of glory
and power. Therefore are we then called upon to stand
erect, as it beseemeth us; for this signifieth nothing
more than to stand so, as it becometh man to stand before
God, with fear and trembling, with a watchful and a sober
mind." And in another sermon, "Oh, man! what art
thou doing ? Hast thou not pledged thyself to the priest,
when he said to thee, ' Lift up your hearts,' and thou
didst answer, ' We lift them up unto the Lord' ? Fearest
thou not, and art thou not ashamed, in that awful hour to
be found a liar ?"

In his exposition of the -list Psalm, he thus speaks on
the salutary influence of vocal music in the churches :
" Nothing so lifteth up, and, as it were, wingeth the soul,
so freeth it from earth, and looseth it from the chains of
the body, so leadeth it unto wisdom, and a contempt of all
earthly things, as the choral symphony of a sacred hymn,
set in harmonious measure. Our nature delighteth so
much in song, and so accordeth with it, that infants at the
breast, when fretful or sobbing, are thereby lulled asleep."
c2

80 CHRYSOSTOM.

After having endeavoured to show, hy various examples,
that when the soul is under the intiuence of song, men
are better enabled to endure exertion and labour, he con-
tinued ; " the singing of psalms bringeth with it much
gain, support, and sanctification, and can supply various
lessons of wisdom, if the words purify the heart, and the
Holy Ghost straightways descend upon the soul of the
singer. For we learn from Paul, that those, who sing
with understanding, call down upon them the grace of the
Holy Spirit. He saith : ' Be not drunk with wine, where-
in is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit,' and he addeth
thereunto the manner ; in which we are to be filled with
the Holy Spirit : ' By singing and making melody in your
heart to the Lord.' What signify these words, 'in your
heart"? He would say with understanding, that the
mouth utter not the words, while the soul wandereth
everywhere abroad ; but that the soul be conscious of that
which the tongue speaketh." Again, in the same dis-
course : " Let us not, then, without due thought, enter
here, and carelessly sing the responses ; but let us bear
them hence, as a staff for the rest of our days. Each
verse may impart to us wisdom, correct our doctrines, and
afford us the greatest aid in life ; and if we nicely search
each saying, we shall gather therefrom rich fruit. No one
can, in this instance, allege the excuse of poverty, business,
or want of understanding ; for shouldest thou be poor, and
because of thy poverty possess no Bible, or shouldest thou
possess one, and not have the time to read therein, thou
needest only to keep in thy heart the responses thou hast
so often chaunted here, and thou wilt draw from them a
great consolation."

He frequently and earnestly exhorted his people to
study the Bible. The following may be quoted as one sen-
tence out of many :

" Let us then heed the reading of the Holy Scriptures,
not only during these two hours, but constantly ; for the
mere listening hero will not be sufficient to secure the

CHRYSOSTOM. 31

salvation of our souls. Let each man, when he returneth
home, take the Bible in his hand, and if he desire to
derive a full and enduring advantage from the Holy
Scripture, let him ponder therein upon the things spoken
in the church. For the tree, which groweth beside the
stream, n^ingleth not with its waters for two or three hours
only, but during the whole day and the whole night.
Therefore is the plant rich in leaves : therefore is it laden
with fruit, although no man water it; because, standing
upon the bank of the river, it draweth up moisture
through its roots, and through them imparteth strength to
the whole stem. Thus he, who continually readeth the
Bible, although no man be near to expound it, receiveth
thereby into his soul abundant nourishment from that
sacred fountain."

But while he thus preached, he taught men also to
defer in their interpretation of Scripture to apostolical
tradition, and the authority of the Church, for " Scripture
cannot contain two contradictory meanings."

He was particularly anxious to promote a zealous obser-
vance of the festival of Christmas, as the following extract
from one of two sermons he preached on this subject in
the year 387 will shew.

" The festival approacheth, the most to be revered,
the most awful, and which we might justly term the centre
of all festivals, — that of the birth and manifestation of
Christ in the flesh. Hence the festivals of Epiphany, of
holy Easter, of Ascension, and of Pentecost, derive their
origin and signification. Had Christ not been born a
man, he w^ould not have been baptized, and we should not
have observed the festival of Epiphany ; he would not
have been crucified, and we should not have solemnized
the festival of Easter ; he would not have sent down the
Holy Ghost, and we should not have celebrated the day of
Pentecost. Therefore from this one festival all other
festivals arise, as various streams flow from the same foun-
tain. But not for this reason alone, should this day be
pre-eminent, but because the event, which occurred upon

32 CHRYSOSTOM.

it, was of all events the most stupendous. For that
Christ should die, was the natural consequence of His
having become man ; because although He had committed
no sin, He had assumed a mortal body. But that being
God, He should have condescended to become man, and
should have endured to humble Himself to a degree surpas-
sing human understanding, is of all miracles the most
awful and astonishing. It was at this, that Paul wondered
and said : ' without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness.' What did he say was great? ' that God was
manifest in the flesh.' And again : ' Verily He took not
on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the
seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoveth
Him to be made like unto His brethren.' Therefore I
love and honour this day beyond all others, and I hold
up this my love in the midst of you, that ye may likewise
become participators in it. Therefore I beseech you on
this day to leave your houses with zeal and alacrity, and
to be here present, that we may together behold our Lord
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger. For
what excuse, what pardon can there be for us, if we will
not so much as come hither from our houses to seek Him,
Who for our sakes descended from heaven ? The Magi,
although they were strangers and barbarians, hastened
from Persia, that they might behold the Saviour lying in
the manger ; and shall not we, who are Christians, endure
to measure so short a distance for the enjoyment of this
blessed sight ? For if we approach with faith we shall
surely behold Him lying in a manger. His holy table
will supply the place of a manger. For there will be
spread the Body of our Lord, not wrapped in swaddling
clothes as then, but on all sides surrounded by His Holy
Spirit. Approach then, and make the offering of thy gifts,
not such as were presented by the Magi, but gifts
infinitely more precious. They brought gold ; do thou
bring temperance and virtue : they offered frankincense;
do thou offer the prayer of a pure heart, wjiich is spiritual
frankincense : they presented myrrh ; do thou present

CHRYSOSTOM. 33

humility, meekness, and charity. If thou draw near with
these gifts, thou mayest with much confidence partake of
the Holy Supper."

Again his observations on Lent are worthy of being
remembered :

" Wherefore do we fast during^ these forty days ? Former-
ly many persons partook of the Lord's Supper without due
preparation, and especially at this season in which Christ
instituted that Holy Sacrament. When the fathers per-
ceived the evil consequences arising from this careless
attendance, they met together and appointed a period of
forty days for the purpose of hearing the divine word, for
prayer and fasting, that we being purified during these
forty days by prayer, by giving of alms, by fasting, by
vigils, by tears, by a confession of our sins to God, and by
all other means, might be enabled to approach the holy
table with a conscience as clear as sinners may possess.
And it is evident that the fathers by this condescension
effected much good, in that they thereby habituated us to
fasting. For were we during the whole year to raise our
voices, and to call upon men to fast, no one would heed
our words ; but when the season of the fast arrive ih,
without the exhortation of any one, the most supine are
awakened, and take counsel from the season itself. Should
therefore the Jew or the heathen ask : Wherefore fast ye ?
answer not, on account of the festival of Easter, nor on
account of the crucifixion; but on account of our sins,
because we would draw near to the Lord's Table. For
Easter is not otherwise a time for fasting, nor for grief,
but an occasion of joy and exultation. The death of our
Lord upon the cross hath taken away sin ; it was an expi-
ation for the whole world ; it hath put an end to long
enmity ; it hath opened the doors of heaven ; it hath
reconciled God to those who before were hateful in His
sight, and led them back to heaven ; it hath raised our
nature to the right hand of the Almighty's throne, and
hath acquired for us many other blessings. Wherefore
Paul saith : ' God forbid, that I should glory, save in the

34 CHRYSOSTOM.

cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And again : ' God com-
mendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were . yet
sinners, Christ died for us.' And St. John expressly
declareth: 'God so loved the world.' In what manner?
Passing by all other things, he holdeth up to us the cross ;
for after saying, * God so loved the world,' he addeth,
'that He gave His only-begotten Son' to be crucified,
' that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.' If then the cross be a proof of
God's love towards us, and an occasion of our exultation,
let us not say, that it is the cause of our grief. For we
grieve not on that account. God forbid ! but on account
of our sins. Therefore we fast."

The festival of Ascension was instituted, according to
Chrysostom, in the remembrance of the glorification of
human nature through Christ. He observes that, " Christ
hath presented to the Father the first fruits of our nature,
and the Father hath valued the gift so highly, on account
of the worthiness of Him Who offered it, and on account of
the sanctity of the thing offered, that He received it with
His own hands, and placed it next Himself: saying,
' Sit Thou at My right hand.' But to what nature did
God ever say, ' Sit thou at My right hand ?' To that
very nature, which once heard the words : ' Dust thou art,
and unto dust thou shalt return.' Willingly do I dwell
upon the lowliness of our nature, that we may learn to
prize in a still higher degree the dignity which hath come
unto us, through the grace of our Lord."

He describes the festival of Pentecost to be a comme-
moration of the Divine Spirit having been communicated
to man, as a proof and pledge of his glorification and
reconciliation to God : " Ten days ago our nature ascend-
ed to tlie Throne of heaven, and to-day hath the Holy
Spirit descended unto our nature. Ten days have scarcely-
elapsed since Christ ascended into heaven, and already
hath He sent down to us the gift of the Spirit, as a pledge
of reconciliation; — that none may doubt what Christ
effected after His ascension; that none may incjuire, if He

CHRYSOSTOM. 35

have reconciled us to the Father. Desirous of proving to
us, that He had propitiated the Father, He straightways
sent unto us the gift of reconcihation ; for when enemies
become reconciled and united together, friendly greetings
and gifts immediately follow the reconciliation. We sent
up faith, and received the gift of the Spirit ; we offered
obedience, and received justification." He afterwards
brings forward proofs of the continued operation of the
Holy Spirit in the Church : " Were not the Holy Spirit
present, we could not name Jesus, Lord ; ' for no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.'
Were not the Holy Spirit present, we, who believe, could
not call upon God, nor say, ' Our Father, which art in
heaven.' For as we cannot call Jesus, Lord ; neither can
we call God our Father, but by the Holy Ghost. For the
same x\postle saith : ' because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father.' When therefore ye call God, Father, remember,
that ye have obtained the gift of thus addressing Him,
through the operation of the Holy Spirit within your
souls. Were not the Holy Spirit present, the gifts of
wisdom and of knowledge would not be granted to the
Church ; ' for to one is given by the Spirit the word of
wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same
Spirit.' Were not the Holy Spirit present, there would be
no pastors nor teachers in the Church, ' over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,' Were not the
Holy Spirit present, the Church would not endure. If,
therefore, the Church endure, it is a proof that the Holy
Spirit is preseut."

He often preached twice in the week, probably on
Sunday and on the Sabbath, Saturday, — which was in
many Eastern Churches appointed for the assembling of
the congregation. He occasionally preached at break of
day, an hour which was perhaps chosen in consequence of
the great heat. Bishop Flavian appears to have acknow-
ledged, and availed himself of the superior attainments of
Chiysostom. On one occasion, after the Bishop in a few

36 CHRYSOSTOM.

preliminary words had addressed his congregation upon a
subject, which in the polemics of that day frequently came
under discussion, he permitted him to come forward and
answer the objections of the heretics, which the congrega-
tion desired to hear refuted by Chrysostom. At another
time, in the early morning, when Chrysostom had preach-
ed a sermon to the catechumens at one of the distant
Baptisteries, and had afterwards arrived at the mother
Church; oppressed by fatigue and expecting to hear a dis-
course from his Bishop ; the latter desired to become the
auditor of Chrysostom, whom he called upon to preach
instead of himself, that the wishes of the congregation
might be accomplished, who were filled with anxiety to
hear him. The eloquence of Chrysostom soon excited
general admiration throughout the city, and attracted men
of all classes to the church. The listeners thronged
around the pulpit, eager to catch each word that he
uttered. At times, when he had preached at greater
length than he had intended, and towards the end of his
sermon feared to have weared his audience, the tokens of
applause becoming louder at every moment, gave him
clearly to understand, that it was their wish still longer to
receive his instruction; and in that age, when men were
more accustomed to hear the word expounded by their
preachers, than to study it in manuscript, a teacher of
such amazing eloquence, as Chrysostom, — who testified by
his own holy life, that the doctrines, which he delivered
with so much power and feeling to others, had a sanctify-
ing and blessed influence upon himself — was capable of
producing effects, which, as St. Jerome says, were wont to
reveal themselves in a zealous performance of all good
works. Chrysostom wrote some of his sermons with care;
some he had composed before hand, but altered according
to circumstances, and others again he delivered unpre-
pared, availing himself of any event of the moment. We
find an instance of the latter, when on a winter-day, as he
bent his steps towards the church, being deeply affected by
the sight of a number of beggars, lying in a miserable

CHRYSOSTOM. 87

state upon the ground, he was moved to commence his
discourse by the folio wiug address : "I have risen to-day
to advocate a cause, just, useful, and worthy of you. I have
been deputed by the mendicants of our city. They have
called upon me, — not by words, — not by votes, — nor by
any common resolve ; but by their frightful and wretched
appearance. For in hastening to this assembly as I
crossed the forum, and passed through the narrow streets,
and saw many of them lying in the midst of the ways, of
whom some were deprived of their hands and eyes, others
covered with incurable sores, and exposing those places
especially, which on account of the putrid gore they dis-
charged. Deeded concealment, I held it to be the most
cruel insensibility not to appeal to your charity in their
behalf; and still more, as the season itself demanded it of
me. It is indeed necessary to exhort men at all seasons
to have pity upon their brethren, as we ourselves need it
so much from our merciful Lord, but now especially
during the severe cold." The second case is exemplified
by those sermons, in which he instantly perceives and
takes advantage of the impression made either by his
words, or by any sudden occurrence in the church ; — thus
upon remarking, that the attention of his hearers was
attracted by the lighting of the lamps in the church, he
exclaimed : " Awake from your inattention ; lay aside your
sloth ; while I explain to you the Holy Scriptures, ye have
turned your eyes to the lamps, and to him, by whom they
are lighted. How great an indifference ! I also kindle for
you a light, the light of the Holy Scriptures ; upon my
tongue burneth the light of instruction, a better and
a greater light, than that upon which ye gaze." It may
likewise be observed, that he suffered himself in a great
degree to be impelled by the feeling of the moment, when,
according to his own confession, the mention of a favourite
theme exercised such power over his mind, that in the
remainder of his homily he occupied himself with the
new subject to the entire exclusion of that with which he

YOL IV. D

38 CHRYSOSTOM.

had commenced ; and on another occasion, when he had
intended to preach a shorter discourse, — upon observing,
that notwithstanding the length at which he had spoken,
the sympathy of his flock, instead of decreasing, con-
tinued to augment, — he was induced, contrary to his
original design, still further to enlarge upon the subject.

In the second year of Chrysostom's ministry an event
took place which spread confusion and dismay throughout
Antioch, and at the same time manifested the influence
which he possessed over his flock. In the year a.d. 387,
one of those imperial decrees, which frequently in that
age of despotism oppressed the cities of the Roman em-
pire, exacted from the Antiochians taxes to all appearance
impossible to be raised. A general alarm was excited
and the irritation of the people was increased by the
severity of the tax-gatherers. Citizens of all classes, from
the highest to the lowest, hastened to the churches, and
implored the Almighty for deliverance. They then
assailed the Imperial governor with complaints and en-
treaties. No redress being obtained, an insurrection took
place, which, as Chrysostom and many of his contem-
poraries maintain, originated in a small number of stran-
gers, collected together from difl'erent countries, and actu-
ated by wantonness or a desire of gain. An application to
the Bishop was frequently made by the citizens in similar
calamities, and by this means relief was sometimes obtain-
ed. At first the discontented sought in the church the
Bishop Flavian, in order probably to procure a diminution
of the taxes through his representations to the Emperor
at Constantinople. Not finding him, they threatened to
storm the house of the governor. Enraged, they hastened
to the market-place, tore down the statues of the Emperor,
of the Empress, and of the young Princes, Arcadius and
Honorius ; and insulted and reviled them with songs.
The more distinguished citizens, who composed the
senate, and administered the general government of the
city, ventured not even to make the attempt of appeasing.

CHRYSOSTOM. 39

the rage of the multitude : they themselves had reason to
fear the anger of the people, and were compelled to seek
concealment. This superior class found itself in the most
embarrassing situation. Impoverished and deprived of
many of their privileges by the tyranny of the government,
they were called upon to exercise the same authority over
the city, as in the days of their former prosperity and
opulence, and even to support greater burthens. The
people vehemently demanded of them assistance and
relief, which they were incapable of affording; and the
Imperial government made them responsible for the insur-
rection of the people, which they could neither prevent nor
suppress.

The incensed populace had already set fire to the house
of the most distinguished citizen, when a body of soldiers,
which had been previously expected, arrived and repulsed
them. The rebellion was in a short time put down. All
those who were taken in the act of crime, of every sex and
age, were immediately condemned and executed by order
of the governor, who dreaded the displeasure of the
Emperor. But this was not enough : the violent temper
of Theodosius was well known, and an insurrection, in
which the busts of the imperial family had been insulted,
was sufficient in those days to call down ruin upon a
whole city. Messengers were dispatched to Constanti-
nople to report the events which had taken place, and to
demand instructions from the Emperor. Until his final
decision became known at Antioch, the most painful
fluctuations of hope and fear prevailed. It behoved the
preacher of the Gospel to take this changing mood into
consideration. Chrysostom had frequently reproved the
frivolous and wicked disposition of those idlers, who spent
the greatest part of their time in the theatre, and had
taken the most active part in this insurrection. He had
often required from the Antiochians not to tolerate that
sacrilegious feeling, which discovers itself in the profan-
ation of every thing sacred, and in a brutal indifference
towards the higher concerns of life. It was remarkable.

40 CHRYSOSTOM.

that on the Sunday preceding the insurrection, he had
more particularly called their attention to this subject in
a sermon preparatory to the annual fast of Lent, — a time
especially consecrated to repentance.

After Chrysostom had held this discourse, a further
opportunity of working upon the minds of his congregation
presented itself. Bishop Flavian, notwithstanding his
advanced age, his infirm state of health, and other circum-
stances, which might have prevented him, was induced by
a paternal solicitude towards his flock, to undertake a
journey to Constantinople for the purpose of making a
personal application to the Emperor. In the mean time,
the fast of forty days preceding Easter had commenced,
which always produced a remarkable change in the lives
both of the rich and poor, and was wont to give to the whole
city a different aspect. The public amusements were sus-
pended, and the people assembled daily in the Church to
offer up prayers, and hear the divine word. The calamity
of the times augmented the severity of the fast, and led
the people to repentance ; and, bereft of human aid, they
were the more disposed to seek refuge in God. After the
departure of the Bishop, Chrysostom had, without doubt,
the chief direction of affairs in the diocese. In the first
discourse which he held after Flavian's departure, he
pourtrayed to the people the paternal love of their Bishop :
" When I behold that vacant throne deserted, and without
its master, I at the same time both weep and rejoice. I
weep, because I see not our father present, but I rejoice,
that he hath undertaken this journey for our preservation,
and hath departed to snatch from the fury of the Emperor
so great a multitude. This is to you, an ornament ; to
him, a crown. An ornament to you, because ye have
chosen such a father, — a crown to him, because he is
attached with so much tenderness to his children, and
hath confirmed by his works the words of Christ. For
having been taught, that ' the good shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep,' he departed ready to lay down his life
for us all. Still there were many obstacles to his depar-

CHRYSOSTOM. 41

ture, — many circumstances inducing him to stay ; — his
advanced age ; his bodily infirmity ; the season of the
year; the necessity of his presence at the approaching
festival ; his only sister lying at the point of death. But
he disregarded alike old age, infirmity of body, the ties of
consanguinity, the asperity of the season, and the difiicul-
ties of the journey ; and preferring to everything your
deliverance, he broke through all these bonds, and as a
youth the old man hasteneth, borne upon the wings of
zeal. For if, said he, Christ ' gave Himself for us,' what
excuse should we have, or what pardon should we deserve,
were we, to whom He hath committed the care of so great
a flock, not ready to do and to suffer all things, for the
salvation of those entrusted to us. For if, said he, the
patriarch Jacob, when set over cattle, feeding irrational
sheep, and about to render an account to man, passed
sleepless nights, and endured heat, frost, and every
extreme of weather, that none of his flock might perish ;
much more behoveth it us, who are not set over irrational,
but spiritual sheep, and are not about to render an
account of our stewardship to man, but to God, to be
watchful and to face every danger for the sake of our
flock. For inasmuch as this flock is better than that
flock, — men better than brutes, and God higher than
man ; in the same degree ought we to exhibit a far more
exceeding diligence and zeal." He then endeavoured to
inspire them with hope : " God will not overlook such
great readiness and zeal. He will not permit his servant
to depart without having accomplished his purpose. I
know that his appearance will suffice to appease the wrath
of the pious Emperor. For not the speech alone, but the
aspect of holy men is full of spiritual grace. Moreover he
is filled with much wisdom, and experienced in the divine
laws, he will speak to the Emperor, as Moses spake to
God: 'Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; — and if
not, blot me, I pray Thee out of Thy book, which Thou
hast written.' For holy men are so filled with love, that
d2

42 CHRYSOSTOM.

they had rather die with their children, than live without
them. He will also call the holy festival of Easter to his
aid ; he will remind him of the season, in which Christ
remitted the sins of the whole world. He will exhort him
to imitate his Lord ; he will recall to his memory the
parable of the ten thousand talents, and the hundred
pence. I know the fearless sincerity of our father, — he
will not hesitate to alarm him by this parable and say :
take heed that thou hear not at the last day : ' 0 ! thou,
wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou
desiredst Me : shouldest thou not also have had compas-
sion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?'
To these words he will add the prayer, which the Emperor
was taught to offer up by those, who gave him the instruc-
tion preparatory to Holy Baptism, and taught him to pray,
and say : ' Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors.' He will then shew, that the transgression of the
city was not general, but proceeded from certain strangers
and adventurers, who did nothing with reason, but con-
ducted themselves with audacity and lawlessness ; that it
would not be just for the folly of a few to raze so great a
city, and to punish those who have committed no wrong ;
and that, though all had sinned, they have made sufficient
atonement, having been consumed by fear so many days,
expecting each day to die, driven away, fugitives, living
more miserably than criminals, bearing their blood in
their hands, and insecure of their lives. Be satisfied, he
will say, with this punishment, and proceed not further in
thy wrath. Render the judge above merciful to thee by
thy mercy towards thy fellow servants. Consider the
greatness of the city, and that it is not a question of one,
two, three or ten souls, but of thousands innumerable, of
the head of the whole world. For this is the city in
which Christians first assumed their name. Honour
Christ ; respect that city, in which was first proclaimed to
men that high and cherished appellation. There was the
resort of the Apostles; there the dwelling place of the

CHRYSOSTOM. 43

just. This is the first instance of sedition against those
in power, and ;J1 past time testifieth for the manners (if
this city. Had its inhabitants constantly rebelled, it
might have been necessary to have condemned them for
their iniquity. But since in the lapse of time this hath
only once come to pass, it is evident that the transgres-
sion hath not arisen from the corruption of the city ; but
from the lawlessness of those adventurers who, to our mis-
fortune, audaciously and foolishly entered it. These things
will the Bishop say ; yea, more than these, and with still
greater confidence. To these things will the Emperor
listen. We have a faithful Bishop and a benevolent
Emperor, — on either side good hope ; but far more than
the fidelity of the teacher or the humanity of the Emperor,
do we place our trust in the mercy of God ; for while the
Emperor is being implored, and the Bishop is imploring,
God himself will stand between, will soften the heart of
the Emperor, and animate the speech of the Bishop." He
then sought to turn their thoughts to God : "I have be-
held many afilicted and cast down while they exclaimed :
' The King's wrath is as the roaring of a lion.' What shall
we say to these men ? That He, Who spake : ' The wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid, and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox,' will be able to convert this lion into a gentle lamb.
Let us therefore, call upon God, and He will deliver us
from all danger. Let us assist our father with our
prayers. The united prayers of a congregation avail
much, when they proceed from troubled souls and contrite
hearts. We are not called upon to cross the sea, or to
undertake a far journey. Each of us, both man and
woman, either at home or in the church, may with heart-
felt fervour invoke the Almighty, and He will surely hear
our prayers. Wherefore do I know this ? Because it is
His good pleasure, that we should ever take refuge with
Him, — ask Him for every thing, — and neither act, nor
speak without Him. It is the manner of men, that when
we constantly burthen them with our affairs, they become

44 CHRYSOSTOM.

wearied and displeased with us ; — far different is it with
God. Not when we continually have recourse to Him in
our concerns, but when we have it not, — then is He most
incensed. Hear how He accuseth the Jews, saying,
' Woe to the rebellious children, that take counsel, but
not of Me ; and that cover with a covering, but not of My
Spirit.' For this is the way of those who love ; they de-
sire that the affairs of the beloved one should all be regu-
lated by them ; that without them they should neither act
nor speak."

He pointed out to the Antiochians the great comfort to
be derived from a communion with the Church, a com-
munion which the present calamity and fast contributed
to render peculiarly sincere. He said, " We derive no
ordinary consolation from the present season ; for we
daily meet together, and rejoice in hearing the Divine
Word ; we daily behold each other ; pour forth together
our sorrows and supplications ; and before we return home
receive the common blessing. All these things lighten
our affliction." Again: "the forum is deserted, but the
church is tilled. That giveth cause for grief; this for
spiritual gladness. When, therefore, ye come to the
forum and groan at the sight of its desolation, fly to your
spiritual mother, and she will straightwise console you
vllth the multitude of her children ; will discover to you
the united band of brethren, and dispel your grief. We
seek for men in the city as in a desert ; but if we take
refuge in the church we are thronged by the multitude.
As when the sea is lifted up, and driven by the raging
storm, terror constraineth those without to fly into the
harbours, so now the tempest, which hath burst upon our
city, hurrieth every one from all directions into the
church, and uniteth its members by the bond of love."
Again : " Whence could ye derive consolation, if we did
not console you? The authorities of this world terrify
you, — the ministers of the Gospel strengthen you ; — the
Church, our common mother, openeth daily her bosom to
welcome you as her children."

CHRYSOSTOM. 45

Flavian arrived at Constantinople a short time before
Easter, and the success of his mission was greatly advan-
ced by the period of his arrival. The Christians, accord-
ing to ancient usage, celebrated their festivals by acts of
mercy, especially that of Easter, on account of the great
event then solemnized. It was even acknowledged by the
civil code, that during that season mercy ought to prevail.
About this time the Emperor issued to the provinces an
edict, in which he commanded, that all prisoners should
be released in honour of the festival of Easter, and added,
" Would that I were able to recall the executed? Would
that I could raise them and restore them to life !" Bishop
Flavian reminded the Emperor of these words, and they
made a strong impression upon his mind, as Chrysostom
had predicted, when he read that edict to his congregation
for the purpose of consoling them : " Deeply affected,
Theodosius uttered words, says Chrysostom, which became
him more than his imperial crown : ' Is it then,' said the
Emperor, ' wonderful, that we, being men, should remit
our anger against men who have insulted us ; when the
Lord of the world. Who descended upon earth, and took
upon Him for our sake the form of a servant, while cruci-
fied by those, whose benefactor He had been, prayed to
His Father for His murderers, saying, ' Forgive them ;
for they know not what they do ?' Wherefore then are ye
surprised, that we forgive our fellow- servants ?" Theodo-
sius wrote a letter to the Antiochians, in which he
promised to forget their past offences, and Flavian was
commissioned to carry this letter with diligence to his
flock, that it might arrive during Easter, and contribute
to the joy and gratitude with which that festival was cele-
brated. Chrysostom announced these events to his con-
gregation in a discourse on Easter-day, a. d. 387, which
he thus began : — " In the words with which I was wont to
commence my appeal to your love in the period of danger,
in the same words I will commence my discourse to-day,
and say with you, blessed be God ! Who to-day permitteth
us to celebrate this sacred feast with exceeding joy and

46 CHKYSOSTOM.

gladness ; Who hath restored the head to the body, the
shepherd to his flock, the master to his disciples, the
leader to his soldiers, the high-priest to his clergy. ' Bles-
sed be God !' Who doeth exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think." He concluded with the following
exhortation, in allusion to their conduct upon the arrival
of a messenger dispatched by Flavian with the welcome
intelligence to Antioch: "As ye then did, when ye
crowned the market with wreathes of flowers, kindled the
lights, extended the carpets before the workshops, and
celebrated, as it were, the birthday of a city ; — do always,
but in a different manner: crown not the forum with
flowers, but crown yourselves with virtue ; kindle the light
of good works in your souls, and rejoice with spiritual
gladness. Let us not cease to thank God for the mercy,
which He hath shewn to us, and let us confess our great
obligations to Him, not only for having dispelled these
dreadful calamities, but likewise for having permitted
them to impend over us ; for by both of these dispensations
He hath conferred honour upon our city. Declare these
events to your children with prophetic voice ; let your
children relate them to their children ; they again to
another generation; — that all futurity may know the
mercy shewn by God towards this city ; may deem us
blessed to have enjoyed beneficence so great ; may venerate
our Lord, Who hath raised a city thus fallen : and may
thereby be benefited and excited to piety. For the
history of these events will not only greatly benefit our-
selves, if we be constantly mindful of them, but likewise
those who live after us."

These important events induced many of the heathens
at xlntioch to become converts to Christianity.

The XlXth Homily of St. Chrysostom ad pop. Antioch.
is in these days worthy of attention, being addressed to
the presbyters of the distant country parishes, who came
to the metropolis to celebrate Ascension-day. St. Chrysos-
tom represents them as simple persons, chosen from
among the peasantry, deficient in the higher mental

CHRYSOSTOM. 47

attainments, and unacquainted with Greek literature and
accomplishments, although fully capable of propounding
in plain language the essential doctrines of their faith.

During the ensuing year Chrysostom appears to have
been often interrupted in the exercise of his vocation by
sickness, which had been brought on by his former ascetic
practices. When, after a second illness, he was sufficient-
ly recovered to preach again, he began by testifying his
joy at being enabled to re- appear in the midst of his
beloved flock, the separation from whom had been more
painful to him than the disease itself. He then alluded,
as was often his custom, to the sermons preached during
the late fast, by which he had induced a part of his con-
gregation to pass a law among themselves renouncing all
forms of asseveration, except yea and nay. While he
praised those who had entered into an agreement strictly
to fulfil this command of Christ, he at the same time
added, that they must not suppose, that it was enough to
comply with this single injunction ; for the observance of
all the commands of Christ was necessary to form the
harmony of a Christian life ; and he therefore required of
them to obey another more difficult law, that of suppres-
sing anger and revenge, and of forgiving injuries, in sup-
port of which exhortation he explained and applied the
parable of the ten talents.

It is evident from this that he did not see any objection
to the formation of societies, to enable their members to
observe with greater strictness particular duties.

When St. Chrysostom entered upon his ministry at
Antioch, there existed a schism in the Church, which had
been maintained above twenty years in all the rage of
party spirit. Independent of the larger portion of the
community, which looked up to Meletius as their Bishop,
a separate congregation had grown up, which had never
been brought to acknowledge that worthy man, because he
had been appointed to his high office by the influence of
Arians, although his opinions conformed so little to those
of Alius, that he was shortly after his installation, exiled

48 CHRYSOSTOM.

on account of bis opposition to those doctrines. When
Meletius died, a. d. 381, while the council of Constanti-
nople was being held, the schism might easily have been
healed, had it not been arranged according to the
demands of Gregory Nazianzen, and agreeably to the
decision of a former treaty ratified by oaths, that no other
Bishop should be associated with the aged Paulinus. In
that case, after the death of Paulinus, — which could not
have been very distant — the schism would of itself have
subsided. But the arrogant self-will of the Orientalists
permitted not this arrangement; and by the choice of
Flavian in the room of Meletius, the schism was handed
down to succeeding ages. This schism had been accom-
panied by the injurious consequences ever attendant upon
such divisions. Those very persons, who distinguished
themselves by a more than ordinary interest in the con-
cerns of religion and the Church, were led, from a mis-
taken sympathy to engage the most ardently in the cause
of one or other of the contending parties ; and they, who
could have effected so much for their own salvation and
that of others, had their zeal been properly directed,
forgot that the true spirit of Christianity is that of
humility and love. On this point Chrysostom thus expres-
ses himself: " Of those who form our Church, some never
come hither, or once only in the year ; and then they de-
mean themselves carelessly, and are devoid of godly fear.
Others come more frequently, but they likewise behave
themselves irreverently, talking hghtly and jesting about
trifles. They, however, who seem zealous and in earnest,
are the workers of this mischief." He was compelled par-
ticularly to censure the women, who took a vehement part
in those factious disputes, and against them his admoni-
tory discourses were chiefly directed.

Besides this little party, separated from the mother
church, more through accidental circumstances than by
any essential difference of doctrine, there were scattered
throughout the city of Antioch members of other sects,
dissenting from the Church in important points. As they

CHRYSOSTOM. 49

contended with the other Christians upon certain dogmas,
and endeavoured to promulgate their own opinions, Chrj-
sostom considered it to be his duty, by thoroughly refuting
their errors, to guard his congregation against these
attacks, and at the same time to instruct them in the
means of refuting the sectarians in their own discussions
with them. He hoped likewise to turn many from their
mistaken views, as both heathens and heretics attended
his sermons, either attracted by his eloquence, or desirous
of hearing his allegations against them. In order to
obtain a hearing among the unlearned, the heretics com-
monly pretended, that, differing from the Church in no
essential points, they equally believed in Christ, and
equally preached His religion. They appealed to the words
of St. Paul: "What then? notwithstanding everyway,
whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached."
Chrysostom in order to preserve his flock from indiffer-
ence, endeavoured to prove, in a homily upon this passage,
that it had been perverted to an end entirely foreign to its
real signification. He first asserted that St. Paul spoke not
here of what ought to occur, but of what was occuning.
Then, that St. Paul alluded not to those, who under the
name of Christ, promulgated a false religion ; but to those
who delivered the true doctrine from imj)ure motives, and
not from sincere conviction. Against this perversion of
the doctrine of St. Paul, he shews from passages such as
Gal. i. 8, and II Cor. xi. 2, 3, that St. Paul attached
great importance to purity of doctrine, and considered as
deeply injurious the errors which seduced men from the
true faith.

Among the peasantry, and in the smaller towns of
Syria, the Manicheans and Gnostics had always main-
tained themselves, but few of them appear to have resided
at Antioch, — at all events, their influence was slight in
that great metropolis. Chrysostom, therefore, merely
noticed their doctrines incidentally in his sermons, when
he defended the free-will of man against their views of

VOL IV. E

50 CHRYSOSTOM.

predestination and fatality; or when he sought to prove,
in opposition to their tenets, that the body in itself is not
the cause of evil, and that neither the body, nor aught
that is external, can compel men to sin.

The Eunomians were a sect of far greater importance
at Antioch. They were transplanted thither at an early
period, and combatted the doctrine of the true divinity of
Christ, — that the Son was of the same substance with the
Father; and it appears, that their chief leaders, CEtius and
Eunomius, had formerly preached in that city. Soon
after he had entered upon his ministry, St. Chrysostom felt
himself compelled to defend in his discourses this impor-
tant doctrine against the objections disseminated by
members of this sect among his congregation. But for
some time he purposely refrained from attacking them,
because he observed, that many of their party frequented
the church for the sake of hearing him, and he was desir-
ous not to scare them away, trusting, that, if he could
obtain their confidence, his instruction might win a more
easy access to their hearts. He was successful in the
attainment of his object, being iu the first years of his
ministry called upon by the sectarians themselves to state
the opinions he held in opposition to their tenets.

Equally cogent were his arguments against the Proto-
paschites, the Jews, and the Heathens. Many of the
Christians observed, with uneasiness, that some of the
heathens led a life consistent with the ordinary demands
of morality, but that, nevertheless, they continued in hea-
thenism. If there were, among the Christians, those to
whom the true requisites of holiness were unknown, the
idea obtruded itself upon them, that without being Chris-
tians, they might lead a good life and attain to eternal
happiness. In allusion to those, who became thus trou-
bled at beholding a heathen mild, virtuous, and benevo-
lent, remain unconverted, Chrysostom observed : " He
hath perhaps another disease of the soul, vanity, or sloth ;
'he provideth not for his salvation, but thinketh that

CHRYSOSTOM. 51

chance will guide all things to his advantage." Again :
** Tell me not of those who are bj nature modest and
discreet; for theirs is not holiness. But name to me
those who have to struggle with vehement passions, yet
possess the power of controlling them. Tell me not, that
a man leadeth a sober life, and defraudeth no one of his
property : this alone is not holiness ; for of what avail is
it, if a man do these things, and yet be the slave of vain
glory ? or continue in heathenism, because he is ashamed
to desert his friends ? This is not living righteously.
The slave of ambition is not less wicked than the for-
nicator."

In those days the Church did not enjoin as necessary
auricular confession previous to the celebration of the
Holy Communion, nor indeed at any other time. When
Chrysostom exhorts his flock to a confession of their sins,
he means the silent confession of the heart before God.
Since therefore no confession preceded the Lord's Supper,
the liturgy of the communion service w^as so ordered, as
to excite men to self-examination, and to deter those from
approaching the altar, who, on account of their evil lives,
merited exclusion from the congregation. AVith this view,
Chrysostom thus availed himself of the short, but impor-
tant demands of this liturgy : '• Hear ye not the words of
the deacon, during the celebration of the holy communion,
who constantly calleth out : Knoiv one another. Doth he
not entrust to you the strict examination of your
brethren?" That no one might plead as an excuse his
ignorance of the danger connected with an unworthy par-
ticipation of the supper of the Lord, and since no man can
look into the heart of another, the priest, says Chrysostom,
requires all those to retire, whose consciences admonish
them of their own unworthiness ; "for standing aloft,
seen by all, and raising his hand, he calleth in that
moment of awful stillness with a loud and solemn voice :
' Holy things for the holy.' "

At the same time, that he exhorted men to repentance,
he warned them against the delusion of those, who con-

52 CHRYSOSTOM.

sidered atonement for sin to consist in certain mortifica-
tions of the flesh, and other outward performances, an
error which, he says, was particularly prevalent among the
women, and, as he had done in two writings already cited,
he called attention to that Christian repentance, which
sprung from the heart. Thus he says : " Let us not then
despair on account of our sins, neither let us become
slothful ; but while we acknowledge our sins, let our
hearts be contrite, and let not our repentance consist in
mere words. For I know many who profess to grieve for
their sins, and yet give no real proof of their repentance.
They fast indeed and wear sackcloth, but are more greedy
after gain than hucksters ; are more a prey to anger than
wild beasts ; and delight more to speak evil of their
neighbour, than others do to speak good of their neigh-
bour. This is a mere mask, a shadow of repentance ; it
is not repentance. In such cases it were well to say, take
heed, ' lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we
are not ignorant of his devices.' Some he destroy eth
through their sins, others he bringeth to perdition through
their repentance, by suffering them to gather thence no
fruit. For those whom he cannot ruin in a common way,
he inciteth to greater exertions, that he may render their
repentance unfruitful, by persuading them, that they have
made full atonement for their sins, and may therefore rest
in security. If we fast, and are thereby filled with arro-
gance, our fasting will prove to us an injury, not a benefit.
Humble therefore thine heart, that God may be near to
thee ; for ' the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a con-
trite heart.' If thou have committed sin, lament not,
because thou hast incurred punishment, for that is
nothing ; but because thou hast offended the Lord, who is
so merciful, so good to thee, and so solicitous for thy salva-
tion, that He hath given up His only Son unto death for
thy sake. Lament therefore unceasingly; for thus to
lament, is truly to confess thy sins."

!Neander observes that Chrysostom, anxious to withdraw
from man every prop of immorality, opposed the placing of

CHRYSOSTOM. 53

any confidence in the intercession of the saints, hecause
many were thereby lulled into a state of security and
indolence ; and were restrained from drawing out of the
one fountain of all good, and from applying in the con-
cerns of their souls to the one Eternal Mediator. It is
true, that Chrysoslom did not reject the imploring of the
intercessions of the saints, which custom was beginning to
prevail at that time throughout the Church ; but he
always directed men from the saints, as the mere instru-
ments of divine grace, to God and Christ.

In the year 397 Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople,
died. Some time was passed in deliberating in the choice
of his successor ; several were proposed, and some priests
offered themselves, offering presents, and even falling on
their knees before the people, who were so scandalized at
it, that they besought the Emperor to look out for some
one worthy of the sacerdotal office. The eunuch, Eutro-
pius, who governed the Emperor Arcadius, had been
acquainted with the virtues and talents of Chrysostom, in
a journey he had made to the East; and at his recom-
mendation Chrysostom was elected Bishop of Constan-
tinople, by the unanimous consent of the people and
clergy, and with the approbation of the Emperor. But it
was so notorious how well he was beloved at Antioch, where
he had officiated as priest for twelve years, and how ready
the people of that city were to raise commotions, that
Eutropius caused the Emperor to write to Asterius,
Count of the East, with orders to send him away without
noise. The count having received the Emperor's letter,
desired Chrysostom to meet him, on pretence of some
business, at a church near the Roman gate. Here taking
him into his chariot, he drove with speed to a place called
Bagras, where he placed him in the hands of an eunuch
and an officer sent to conduct him to Constantinople.

St. Chrysostom found in Constantinople all the vices of
Asia concentrated, and, determining to efiect a reforma-
tion, he commenced with his own household. He sold
e2

54 CHRYSOSTOM.

the sumptuous furniture and rich vessels with which his
predecessor had dazzled the public eye ; and thinking
to maintain the dignity of the episcopate, not by his
splendid equipages, but by his active benevolence, he
established hospitals, and devoted his whole income to
charitable purposes. But while he obtained from the
poor the glorious title of John of Almsdeeds, he offended
the worldly, who respect while they murmur at the mag-
nificence of their prelate. At the same time it appears
from Socrates that his temper was not always under con-
trol, and that his manners were far from conciliatory. In
the church and in the pulpit he was unequaled : but he
was perhaps better adapted to be the preaching presbyter
of Antioch, than to be the representative of the democratic
interest at Constantinople. The remains of the demo-
cracy of the old Roman empire were found in the Church,
where and where only the cause of the plebeian and the
poor was fearlessly maintained, against an aristocracy of
wealth as well as birth. It was through the Church that the
progress of a grinding despotism was checked ; and to put
down the power of the Church was the great object of the
temporal authorities. St. Chrysostom weakened the worldly
power of the Church by doing his duty as a man of God.
His attempt to reform the clergy alienated from him all who
preferred sentiment to self-denial, and who viewed holy
orders with merely professional views. And ecclesiastics,
to indulge their animosity against their bishop, were
willing to unite with the civil authorities to depose him,
while the faction found a powerful leader in the Alexan-
drian patriarch, whose feelings of jealousy had long been
excited against Chrysostom, and who, probably, regarded
with equal jealousy the powers and authority conceded to
the Patriarch of Constantinople. The aristocratic party,
thus strengthened by a division among the ecclesiastics,
were able to degrade for the first time the episcopal
authority at Constantinople, and though their triumph
was -not completed by the fall of St. Chrysostom, an

CHRYSOSTOM. 55

advantage was gained, which was brought ere long to a
successful issue.

St. Chrysostom, hke all the bishops of that age, regarded
the Church as the protector of the oppressed as well as the
poor. It had powder, and that power was exerted to pro-
tect men against the tyranny of the dominant aristocracy,
and even the great men of the empire when injured
sought the protection of that very body which, when in
power, they sought to afflict. This accounts for St. Chry-
sostom's conduct to Eutropius. When disgraced Eutropius
sought sanctuary in the church, St. Chrysostom, as the
great ecclesiastical authority of Constantinople, uuintimi-
dated by threats, extended to hira his protection. The
privilege of the ecclesiastical state was to be maintained ;
but St. Chrysostom had a duty also as bishop to perform,
and therefore to the criminal he addressed himself in the
severest terms.

" Where now," he says, addressing himself to Eutro-
pius, " are your cup-bearers ? your attendants who made
way for you in the streets, and who flattered you ? They
are fled, they have renounced your friendship, they seek
their own safety by your ruin. We do not act thus ; the
Church, to whom you have offered violence, opens her
bosom to receive you ; and the theatres, which you have
supported at so vast an expense, which have so often been
the cause of your indignation agaiust us, have betrayed
you. I say not this to insult over him that is fallen, but
to strengthen those that yet stand." He adds further,
speaking of Eutropius : " Yesterday, when they came from
the palace to force him hence he ran to the sacred vessels,
pale as death, trembling all over, with chattering teeth
and stammering tongue." Then reconnmending him to
their compassion, he adds: "You will say, 'He hath
shut the doors of this sanctuary by divers laws ;' but
experience hath taught him what mischief he hath done ;
he himself is the first that hath broken the law, and his
disgrace is become a warning to all. The altar now
appears more terrible, for it holdeth the lion chained ;

56 CHRYSOSTOM.

like the image of our Prince, treading under foot the
vanquished and captive barbarians." He goes on : " Have
I soothed you f passion ? Have I assuaged your anger?
Have I extinguished your cruelty? Have I raised your
compassion ? Yes, your looks, these torrents of tears
declare it. Come then, let us throw ourselves at the feet
of the Emperor; or rather, let us beseech the God of
mercy, to inspire his heart with pity, that he may grant
us the favour we ask in full. He is already changed; as
soon as he lieard that Eutropius had fled for refuge to
this holy place, he harangued at length his court and
troops, who strove to exasperate him against the criminal,
and were clamorous for his death. The Emperor shed
tears, and made mention of the holy table, whither he
had fled for safety, and thus did he appease their rage.
After this, what mercy can you deserve, if you retain
yours ? How will you approach the mysteries, and say
the prayer in which we entreat forgiveness even as we
forgive ? Let us rather pray to the God of mercy to
deliver this unhappy man from death, and grant him time
to put away his crimes ;" St. Chrysostom refers here to
holy baptism, for Eutropius was a pagan.

This discourse had the desired effect; and St. Chry-
sostom saved the life of Eutropius, but not without
difficulty, and some blows. The people came to the church
in arms, drew their swords, and brought the holy Bishop
to the palace, where he was charged with the discourse
which he had made as with a crime, and threatened with
death. He was unmoved, nor vrould he deliver up
Eutropius, thus proving, as he says, tlie invincible power
of the Church, founded upon the Rock : the Church, he
adds, which consists not in a building, walls, and roofs ;
but in its morality and laws.

St. Chrysostom thus did his duty, and was saving the
people from themselves. They only saw in Eutropius,
the representative of an oppressive aristocracy, although
his had been only the aristocracy of wealth, and having
their oppressor in their power they sought to take ven-

CHRYSOSTOM. 57

geance upon him, not seeing that by the protection that
was extended to him, St. Chrysostom was upholding that
power through which alone their own rights and liberties
could be maintained.

In his office of preacher he was still as successful as
at Antioch. He was an advocate for an evening service.
He exhorted the people to be constant at the church
service of the night, that is, the men who had not leisure
in the day-time ; for as to women, he would have
them stay at home, ond only come to church in the
day-time. " It is necessary," says he, " to remember
God at all times ; but especially when the mind is at rest,
that is, in the night season ; for by day we are interrupted
by other affairs." And in another place : " It was not
intended that we should spend the whole night in sleep
and inactivity. This appears by the practice of handi-
craftsmen, drivers, and merchants ; so also by those of
the Church, who rise at midnight. Do you rise likewise,
and behold the beantifal order of the stars, that profound
silence, that universal repose. The soul is then more
pure, more free, and more elevated ; darkness and silence
excite compunction ; and all men being stretched upon
their beds, as in their graves,' represent the end of the
world. I speak both to men and women ; bend your
knees, sigh and pray; if you have children, wake them
also ; and let your house be like a church in the night-
season. If they have not strength to bear watching, let
them say a prayer or two, in order to accustom them to
rise, and then lie down again." These exhortations gave
' offence to the slothful among the clerks, who were wont to
spend the whole night in sleep.

Chrysostom laboured also to abate the pride of the
rich, and to teach them humility and moderation. "What
reason have you," said he, "to set so great a value on
yourselves, and to think you do us a favour, when you
come to this place, to hear what conduces to your salvation?
Is it your wealth ? Your robes of silk ? Know ye not,
that they are spun by worms, and wrought by the hands

68 CHRYSOSTOM.

of barbarians ? That they are worn by abandoned women,
robbers, the sacrilegious, and by others of character most
infamous ? Descend from this haughtiuess ; reflect upon
the vileness of your nature ; what are ye but earth, dust,
ashes, and vapour? You have, indeed, many men under
your command, but yourselves are slaves to your own pas-
sions. You resemble the man who suffers himself to be
beaten by his servants at home, and boasts of his power
abroad."

His exhortations had so good an effect, that the whole
city of Constantinople daily made a visible progress in
piety. Even those who had been passionately fond of the
horse-race, and the other public shows, forsook the circus
and the theatre, and came in crowds to the church. We
find also very powerful discourses delivered at Constanti-
nople against these abuses. It was in this city that he
expounded, among others, the Epistles to the Ephesians,
to the Colossians, and to the Hebrews, and the Acts of
the Apostles. He preached three times a- week ; and some-
times seven days successively. The crowd was so great at
his sermons, that, to place himself where he might be
heard, he was obliged to quit his usual station, and sit in
the middle of the church, in the reader's desk. Some
came to hear him out of curiosity ; but many became con-
verts, as well pagans as heretics.

St. Chrysostom did not confine his anxious care to his
own Church of Constantinople, but extended it to all the
rest. He reformed the Churches of the six provinces of
Thrace, the eleven provinces of Asia, and the eleven pro-
vinces of Pontus, in all twenty-eight. He applied himself
likewise to missionary labour, and especially to the conver-
sion of the Scythians.

Thus did he gain more and more the affection of the
people by his courage, his piety, and his eloquence, while
at the same time he became more odious to the great, and
a section of his clergy. He came again into collision with
the court, where the Emperor wished to conciliate the bar*

CHRYSOSTOM. 69

barian and Arian Gaines, by granting to him a place of
worship within the city ; St. Chrysostom refused.

The Arians indeed were very numerous at Constanti-
nople, and as they were obliged to hold their assemblies
without the city, they met within the walls near the
public porticoes to go out together, on the solemn days of
every week, that is, on Saturday and Sunday. They sang,
in two choirs, hymns in accordance with their doctrine ;
and after having spent the greater part of the night in this
manner, they went out in the morning, and crossed the
city to repair to their place of assembly. In these
hymns they endeavoured to incense the Catholics, by
saying ; " Where are those who affirm that three things
are but one power ?" St. Chrysostom, fearing lest they
should shake the faith of some of the simple, procured
some Catholics also to sing during the night. The success
did not answer his good intention. The Catholics per-
formed their nocturnal prayers with more display than the
Arians ; they carried silver crosses surmounted with waxen
torches, the invention of St. Chrysostom, and provided at
the expense of the Empress Eudoxia. The Arians, still
insolent from the power they once enjoyed, could not
endure this ; they fell one night upon the Catholics with
such fury, that an eunuch belonging to the Empress,
called Brisco, who was singing with the rest, was wounded
in the forehead with a stone, and some private persons
were slain on both sides. This occasioned the Emperor
to forbid the Arians to sing any more in public, thus re-
newing the prohibition made under the pontificate of
Nectarius, in 396, which forbade their assembling in
the city to perform litanies or prayers night or day. All
which increased the affection of the people for St. Chrysos-
tom, and at the same time procured him enemies.

In the year 400 St. Chrysostom had received a decree
from the clergy of Ephesus, and the neighbouring Bishops,
most solemnly conjuring him, to come and reform that
Church, which had long been afHicted by Arians and bad
Catholics : and to arrest the cabals of those who were

00 CHRYSOSTOM.

endeavouring by money to got possession of the vacant
see. St. Chrysostom, seeing that the question was really
the restoration of discipline throughout the whole diocese
of Asia, whore it had fallen into decay, as much through
the want of pastors as their ignorance, resolved to under-
take the journey, notwithstanding his ill health, and the
severity of the winter. He left the Church of Constan-
tinople to the care of Severian, Bishop of Gabala, in
Syria, who had coine to preach there, and in whom he
placed full confidence ; and took three bishops to accom-
pany him, Paul, Syrian, and Palladius.

During his absence the faction which had been formed
against him gained strength, and a correspondence had
been established with Theophilus of Alexandria. An
accusation had been lodged against Theophilus before
Chrysostom, therefore he had a plea for coming to
Canstantinople in addition to the imperial command.
At length he came, bringing with him a great number of
bishops, who came from I'^gypt, and even from India. He
arrived on Thursday about noon, and was immediately
received with loud acclamations by the J^^gyptian mariners,
who had come with corn to Constantinople. Having
landed, he passed by the church, without entering it
as was usual, and lodged without the city in one of
the Emperor's houses, called Placidiana. Chrysostom
had provided lodgings for him and all his retinue, and
earnestly })resscd them to come to his house, all which
they refused ; and Theophilus would neither see him,
speak to him, pray with him, nor give him any other
mark of communion. Such was his behaviour during
the three weeks he stayed at Constantinople. He never
came near the church, though St. Chrysostom continually
pressed him to go there, to see him, or at least to let
him know the reason why he had thus declared war
against him, from the very moment of his entrance
into the city, and thus caused so much scandal to the
people. Theophilus, however, would never return him
any answer.

CHRYSOSTOM. 61

His accusers, that is, the monks whom he had driven
out of Egypt, urged St. Chrysostom to do them justice ;
and the Emperor, having sent for him, ordered him to
cross the bay, on the other side of which Theophilus
lodged, and hear his cause. He was accused of violence,
murder, and several other crimes. But St. Chrysostom
refused to take cognizance of it, partly out of regard
to Theophilus, but more out of respect to the canons,
which forbade Bishops to judge any cause beyond the
limits of their own province, and upon which Theophilus
himself insisted in the letters, which St. Chrysostom kept
by him.

In the mean time, Theophilus laboured day and night
for the means of driving St. Chrysostom from his see. He
found many persons at Constantinople full of resentment
against him. Acacius, Bishop of Berrhjjea, who had
arrived there some time before, being dissatisfied with the
lodging prepared for him, regarded it as a slight put ui)on
him by St. Chrysostom ; and transported with rage, said
to some of the clergy of St. Chrysostom : " I will dress
him a dainty dish." He entered into a strict friendship
with Severian of Gabala, Antiochus of Ptolemais, and a
Syrian Abbot called Isaac, who made a practice of travel-
ling from place to place, and calumniating the Bishops.
The first thing they did was to send to Antioch, to enquire
into the behaviour of St. Chrysostom in his youth ; and
finding nothing for their purpose, they sent to Alexandria
to Theophilus, who from that time carefully sought some
pretence for accusing him.

In the city of Constantinople itself, Theophilus met
with several who were enemies to St. Chrysostom, namely,
such of liis clergy as were unwilling to submit to the dis-
cipline he would have introduced among them ; and in
particular two priests and five deacons ; two or three per-
sons belonging to the Emperor's court, who procured
soldiers for Theophilus, to assist him in any violent mea-
sures ; and three widows of the first rank, Marsa, widow of

VOL IV. F

69 CHRYSOSTOM.

Promotus, Castricia, widow of Saturninus, both consular
men, and Eugraphia, whose husband is not known.
St. Chrysostom was in the habit of reproving them,
because, though now grown old, they continued to adorn
themselves, and wore artificial hair. The Bishops of Asia,
who had been deposed, were not backward in their resent-
ment. Theophilus was very careful to foment these
animosities. He was profuse in distributing his money,
entertained great numbers of guests, and caressed and
flattered the ambition of the ecclesiastics, by promising
them the highest dignities. He found two deacons whom
St. Chrysostom had expelled the Church for their crimes ;
one for murder, and the other for adultery. He promised
to restore them to their former station ; which he accord-
ingly did after the banishment of St. Chrysostom. On
this assurance he prevailed on them to present petitions
to him, which he had drawn up himself, and were false
in every article except one, which was this : they accused
the Bishop, St. Chrysostom, of advising every body to take,
after the Communion, some water and some pastils, lest
they should cast out with their spittle some part of the
elements, and of doing so himself. Theophilus, having
received this petition, went to the house of Eugraphia
with Severian, Antiochus, Acacius, and the rest of the
enemies of Chrysostom. Being all assembled, they con-
sidered how they should begin to proceed against him.
One of them proposed the presentation of a petition to the
Emperor, to oblige St. Chrysostom to come to their assem-
bly. This advice was put into execution, and money was
not wanting to remove the difficulties that attended it.
It is even said that the Empress Eudoxia was personally
offended with Chrysostom, who, on hearing that she had
incensed St. Epiphanius against him, had, following the
natural heat of his temper, delivered a discourse against
women in 'general, which the people applied to the
Empress. She, being informed of it by some ill-disposed
persons, had complained to the Emperor, and had urged

CHRYSOSTOM. 63

Theophilus to assemble immediately a council against
John.

A suburb of Chalcedon called the Oak, of which
Cyrinus was Bishop, was the place chosen for holding
this council. Cyrinus was an Egyptian by birth, and an
enemy of St. Chrysostom. When Theophilus with the
Bishops in his retinue passed through Chalcedon in their
way to Constantinople, Cyrinus expressed himself with
great resentment against St. Chrysostom, calling him im-
pious, insolent, and inexorable, at which the other Bishops
were much pleased. He was, however, unable to go with
them to Constantinople, because Maruthas, Bishop of
Mesopotamia, had hurt him by accidentally treading on
his foot. But as Theophilus believed Cyrinus' presence
necessary in a council where St. Chrysostom was to be
accused, he resolved to hold it in his city ; as he was be-
sides apprehensive of the people of Constantinople, who
were much attached to their Bishop. The place, then,
where the council assembled, was the suburb of the Oak,
where Ruffinus had built a palace, together with a church
dedicated to the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and a
monastery.

The charges brought against St. Chrysostom were either
so frivolous, or so notoriously false, that this siugle fact
was sufficient to shew that the members of the council
only sought a pretext for pronouncing sentence upon one
already condemned. Among other charges brought against
him, one was that he had ordained priests in his own
domestic chapel instead of the cathedral ; another that he
had given the Holy Communion to persons who were not
fasting. It would be neither edifying nor interesting to
give in detail the history of these proceedings. It will be
sufficient to state that St. Chrysostom refused to obey the
summons of the council, until his avowed enemies ceased
to act as his judges ; and that he was therefore sentenced
to exile for contumacy and a contempt of the Emperor s
authority.

The next question was, how to put the sentence into

64 CHRYSOSTOM.

execution, a revolt being anticipated on the part of the
people if they saw their Bishop, the fearless protector of
the people's rights, and the redresser of their wrongs going
into exile. His persecutors therefore endeavoured to put
him on board a vessel, ready to receive him, by night ;
but not all their precautions could prevent the intelligence
from spreading through the city, and carrying grief and
consternation along with it. The people ran down to the
beach, demanding with cries his restoration to them, some
exclaiming with all the enthusiasm of the Greek character :
Rather let the sun be blotted from the firmament than the
mouth of John (Chrysostom) be silenced ! others, with tears,
entreating his parting benediction. The lamenting crowd
was like a long funeral train, or some dismal ceremony of
expiatory penance. In proportion as the people were con-
scious of their degradation as a people, they had attached
themselves to this great man, as the defender of their
natural rights : his austere and simple mode of life made
him appear sacred in their eyes ; and in the sincerity of
his language, which applied its censures with still more
rigour to the rich than to the poor, they found a security
for the firmness of his character, alike inaccessible to flat-
tery or to fear.

Two or three days after the departure of Chrysostom
from Constantinople, the shock of an earthquake was felt
throughout the city. The people, not yet recovered from
their grief at his loss, loudly proclaimed that it was a sign
of the displeasure of Heaven against them, for having
suffered him to be taken from them. The clamours in-
creased. Arcadius shook with fear ; the Empress, more
courageous and quick- sighted, said to him, " We shall no
longer retain the empire, if we do not recall John." She
wrote the same night to Chrysostom, inviting him, in the
most courteous terms, to return, and throwing all the
blame of his departure upon his enemies, whose machina-
tions she now affected to see through and deplore. The
Bosphorus was covered with vessels to welcome him back
again. As soon as he landed, he requested to be allowed

CHRYSOSTOM. 6,5

to remain in the outskirts of the city, and not resume the
episcopal office, until he should have been acquitted of the
charges brought against him, by a more numerous council
than that which had condemned him ; but the feelings of
the people were not to be controlled. Thousands ranged
themselves around him with lighted tapers, and, with
spontaneous hymns, and amid an out-burst of holy joy,
conducted him to his church, and insisted upon his
ascending his throne, giving them the benediction, and
addressing them.

Scarcely however, had St. Chrysostom enjoyed a calm of
two months since his return, when a statue was set up at
Constantinople in honour of the Empress Eudoxia. It
was of solid silver, and raised on a column of porphyry,
with a lofty base, in the square situated between the
palace where the Senate was held, and the church of
St Sophia which was opposite this palace, and separated
from it by the square, and by a street that went across it.
It was erected under the Consulate of Theodosius the
younger, and Rumoridus, that is, in the year 408, proba-
bly in the month of September, when the first indiction
began. At the dedication of this statue, great rejoicings
were made, as was customary. These were very solemn
exercises, and still tinged with superstition, as appears by
a law of Theodosius the younger, made twenty-two years
after, to purge them from every thing that might appear
idolatrous in them. On the erection of this statue of
Eudoxia, the Praefect of Constantinople, who was a Mani-
chee, and half heathen, encouraged the people to extra-
ordinary rejoicings. They celebrated it with dances and
shows of farce-players, which drew such loud applauses
and acclamations, that Divine Service w^as interrupted.

But St. Chrysostom, unable to bear these improprieties,
spoke with his usual freedom, and blamed not only those
who actually took part in them, but even those who had
ordered them. The Empress was offended at it, and
resolved once more to assemble a council against St. Chry-
'2f

66 CHRYSOSTOM.

sostom; but he continued firm and resolute, and, it is
said, pronounced upon this occasion a celebrated dis-
course, which began as follows ; " Herodias is again
furious, and again demands the head of John." There is
still extant a speech which begins with these words, and
is an invective against women ; but the general opinion is,
that St. Chrjsostom is not the author. Be this as it may
it is certain that a new conspiracy was formed against
him.

The decision of the Council of the Oak had not been
formally reversed, and his re-assumption of his pastoral
duties might, according to a decree of the Council of
Antioch, with respect to such cases be considered as irre-
gular. In the hope of rendering him liable a second
time to censures on this account, the Bishops of Greece
and of the East convened themselves again at Constan-
tinople, to debate on the measures to be pursued respect-
ing him. Lent being come, this faction had a private
audience with the Emperor, and gave him to understand
that John was convicted, and that he ought to give orders
for his banishment before Easter. The Emperor Arca-
dius not being able to refuse them, ordered St. Chrysostom
to quit the Church. He answered ; " I received this
church from God, for the salvation of the people, and I
may not abandon it ; but as the city is yours, if you are
resolved upon my going, drive me out by force, that I may
have a lawful excuse." Officers were therefore sent from
the palace, but not without some feeling of shame, for this
purpose ; with orders, however, for him to continue in the
episcopal residence. " They waited," says Palladius, '• to
see whether Divine vengeance would display itself, that
they might have the means of restoring him to his church
in the one case, or, on the other, of renewing their ill
treatment."

On Easter Eve he was again commanded to leave the
church, to which he made a suitable reply. The Emperor
fearing both the holiness of the day, and the risk of a

CHRYSOSTOM. 67

tumult in the city, seiit for Acacius and Antiochus, and
asked them: "What must be done? Take care," he
added, " that you have not given me ill advice." They
boldly answered ; "On our heads, my Liege, be the
deposition of John."

Still there was delay in the execution of the sentence
from fear of the people, and some attempts were made to
assassinate St. Chrysostom. Five days after Whitsuntide
which, in the year 404, fell on the fifth of June, Acacius,
Severian, Antiochus, and Cyrinus, went to the Emperor,
and said to him : " You may do your pleasure ; but we
have said to you, on our heads be the deposition of John ;
you ought not to ruin us all for the preservation of a
single individual." The Emperor sent Patricius the
notary, to give orders to St. Chrysostom to recommend
himself to God, and leave the church. After so express a
command, St. Chrysostom came down from the episcopal
residence, with the Bishops his friends, and said to them,
" Come, let us pray, and bid farew-ell to the angel of this
church." Immediately a person of great power, and one
that feared God, and sided with the better party, gave
him the following information : " Lucius, to whose insolent
behaviour you are no stranger, lies now ready in a public
bath, with the soldiers under his command, to carry you off
by force, in case you resist, or hesitate to obey. The city
is in great confusion ; go therefore out of it as speedily
and as privately as possible, for fear the people should
come to blows with the soldiers." On this St. Chrysostom,
(too much affected to take leave of all,) bade farewell to
several of the Bishops, saluting them with a kiss accom-
panied with tears, and said to the others who were in
the sanctuary, " Stay here ; I am going to take some
rest."

Accordingly he w^ent into the baptistery and called
Olympias, (who never left the church,) with Pentadia and
Procula, deaconesses, and Silvia, widow of Nebridius, and
daughter of Gildo: "Come hither," said he to them,
" my daughters, and hear me. My end is at hand ; I

68 CHRYSOSTOM.

have finished my course, and perchance you will see my
face no more. All I ask of you is, not to let your affection
for the Church wax cold ; and should any one be ordained
involuntarily, without any solicitation on his part, and
with the consent of all, to bow the head before him,
as you have before me ; for the Church cannot be without
a Bishop. And as you hope for the mercy of God,
remember me in your prayers." They threw themselves
at his feet dissolved in tears. He signed to one of the
most prudent of his priests, and said to him ; " Remove
them hence, lest they disturb the people." They became
more tranquil ; and he went cut on the side facing the
east, while at the same time some persons, by his order,
got ready his horse on the west side before the great
gate of the church, in order to mislead the people who
were expecting him there. He embarked, and landed in
Bithynia.

He arrived at Nicaea, the capital of that province, on
the 20th of June, 404. But the malice of the Empress
still pursued him, and at her instigation an order came
from the court for him to be removed to Cucusus in the
deserts of Mount Taurus, a barren and cold region griev-
ously infested by robbers, and already marked by the
murder of Paul, a former Bishop of Constantinople. He
sent the following letter to Olympias at the beginning of
the year 405. " I write to you on my deliverance from
the gates of death. Therefore I am rejoiced that those
who came from you did not arrive sooner ; for had they
found me in the extremity of my illness, I could not easily
have deceived you, by sending you good tidings. The
winter, more severe than usual, has increased my stomach
complaint ; and I have j)assed these two last months in a
condition worse than death, since I had only so much life
as left me sensible of my sufferings. All was night alike
to me, the day, the morning, and the noon. I passed
whole days in bed, and tried in vain a thousand inven-
tions to protect myself from the cold. It was to no
purpose that I kept fires burning, endured the smoke,

CHRYSOSTOM. 69

shut myself in mj chamber without daring to stir out,
and loaded myself with a hundred coverings : all the
while I suffered excruciating torments, continual sickness,
head-ache, loss of appetite, and inability to sleep through
those long and tedious nights. But not to pain you any
longer ; I am now recovered : the spring no sooner
arrived, and the weather grew a little milder, than all
my ailments left me of themselves. I am still, however,
obliged to observe a strict regimen in my diet, and to eat
but little, that my digestion may be easier."

And in another letter to the same : " Since you desire
to hear from me, I write to tell you that I am recovered
from my great illness, though I yet feel some effects of
it ; I have good physicians, but we are in want here of
remedies, and other things necessary to restore a wasted
body. We even now foresee a famine and plague : and
to increase our misfortunes, the continual incursions of
robbers make our roads impassable. Therefore I pray
you not to send any one here : for I fear it might be the
cause of their being murdered, which, as you well know,
would exceedingly afflict me." He wrote in the same
manner to a deacon whose name was Theodotus. " It
was no slight comfort to me in this solitude, to be able
constantly to write to you : but the incursions of the
Isaurians have deprived me even of this ; for they have
begun to appear again with the spring ; they are spread
over the country, and have made all the roads impassable.
They have already taken some ladies of rank, and mur-
dered several men." Then he continues ; "After having
suffered very much during the winter, I am now some-
what better, though still uneasy from the unusual severity
of the weather : for we are still in the depth of winter ;
but I hope that the fair weather of summer will disperse
the remains of my illness. For nothing is more injurious
to my health than cold, and nothing does me more good
than warmth." In another letter to the same Theodotus,
he says, " I dare not at this time invite you to Armenia,
so great are our calamities. Wherever we go, we see

70 CHRYSOSTOM.

torrents of blood, multitudes of dead bodies, houses
demolished, and towns destroyed. We thought we should
be safe in this fortress, where we are confined as in a
gloomy prison ; but we can enjoy no peace even here."
" For," he says in another letter, " the Isaurians attack
these places also."

This was the fortress of Arabissus, as appears by the
same letter, and by another, in which he says : " Having
found some intermission, we have taken refuge in Arabis-
sus, where the fortress seemed more secure than any
other ; for we do not reside in the town. But death is
daily at our gates, for the Isaurians devastate the whole
country with fire and sword. We fear a famine, from the
multitude of people blocked up in so close a place." And
in another letter to Polybius he writes : " The fear of the
Isaurians makes every one seek safety in flight : the towns
are nothing but walls and roofs ; the ravines and forests
are become cities. The inhabitants of Armenia are like
the lions and leopards, who find their safety only in the
deserts. We daily change our habitations, like the No-
mades and Scythians ; and often little children, hastily
removed by night in the excessively cold weather, are left
dead in the snow."

These continual alarms obliged him to send back a
young reader, named Theodotus, whom he had taken with
him to instruct and form in piety ; another additional
reason being an affection of Theodotus' eyes, to which very
hot or very cold weather was equally injurious. He
therefore sent him back to his father, a man of consular
rank, and also named Theodotus, and with him the pre-
sents also which his father had made him. He com-
mended the young reader to the deacon Theodotus as his
spiritual guide, and wrote to him himself, consoling him,
and exhorting him to pay great attention to his eyes, and
to apply himself as much as possible to read the Holy
Scriptures. " Study their letter," he says, '* unceasingly,
and some day I will explain to you their sense."

He wrote again to Olympias while he was at Arabissus,

CHRYSOSTOM. 71

probably in the spring of the year 406. " Do not be un-
easy," he says, " at the severity of the winter, my stomach
complaint, or the incursions of the Isaurians. The winter
has been as might be expected in Armenia ; but it has
not been very troublesome to me, by reason of the pre-
cautions which I have taken. I have kept continual
fires, and carefully closed the chamber I live in on all
sides ; covering myself warmly and not going abroad.
This is it must be confessed irksome, but I am willing to
bear it, because I find myself the better for it : for w^hile
I keep my room the cold has no great effect on me ;
but whenever I am forced to go out, and be exposed to
the air even a little, I suffer from it not a little." He
afterwards says, " Do not be concerned at my passing the
winter in this place, for I am in much better health
than I was last year ; and you yourself would have been
less indisposed had you taken proper care of your health."
He enlarges on this subject, and on the value which people
ought to set upon health ; and then continues, " If our
separation afflict you expect to see an end to it. I do not
say this merely to comfort you, but I know it will surely
be so ; otherwise I should have died long since with w^hat
I have suffered. As it is I bear myself so well with so
weak a body, that the Armenians themselves are surprised
at it : for neither the rigour of the air, nor solitude, nor the
want of provisions, and servants to attend me ; nor the
ignorance of physicians, nor the absence of baths, which I
have been accustomed to use continually ; nor the chamber
in which I am daily shut up as in a prison, without taking
my usual exercise ; nor being perpetually over the fire
and in the smoke, and being continually in a state of
siege and alarm ; none of these things has been able to
overwhelm me ; nay, I am even better in health here than
at Constantinople, owing to the care I have taken of
myself,"

The enemies of St. Chrysostom being informed of the
great good he did by his conversion of the infidels in that
neighbourhood, and how celebrated his virtues were at

7-2 CHRYSOSTOM.

Antioch, resolved to remove him to a more distant place.
For Severian of Gabala, Porphyrius of Antioch, and
several other Bishops of Syria were still afraid of him,
though he was in banishment, and they were enjoying
the riches of the Church, and disposing of the secular
power. Therefore having sent to court, they obtained of
the Emperor Arcadius a more severe rescript, to have him
speedily removed to Pityus, a desert place in the country
of the Tzani on the borders of the Euxine sea. The
journey was long, and St. Chrysostom was three months
on the road; though the two soldiers of the Praetorian
prefect, who conducted the holy Bishop, hurried him on
extremely, saying that such were their orders. One of
them, not so self-interested as the other, shewed him
some humanity, as it were by stealth, but the other was
80 brutal that he would make him set out in the heaviest
rain, so that he was drenched to the skin ; and would
make a jest of the most scorching heat of the sun,
knowing how painful it was to the venerable prelate,
whose head was bald ; nor would he suffer him to stop
for a moment in any city or town where there were
baths, that he might not be indulged with that relief.

On arriving at Comana, they went through without
stopping, and rested at a church about five or six miles
from the town, and dedicated to St. Basiliscus, Bishop of
Comana, who had suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia, with
St. Lucian of Antioch. The next morning, contrary to
the earnest remonstrances of St. Chrysostom, they pursued
their journey, and had proceeded rather more than three
miles when St. Chrysostom was taken so extremely ill that
they were obliged to return to the church which they had
left. On arriving there, he changed his garments and
clothed himself in white from head to foot, not having yet
broken his fast. After which he distributed the few things
he had left, among those who were then present ; and hav-
ing received the Communion of the sacred symbols of our
Saviour, that is, the Eucharist, he made his last prayer in
the hearing of all who were present, and added, according

CHRYSOSTOM. 73

to his usual custom, these words : " Glory to God
for all things." Then he pronounced his last Amen,
and stretching out his feet, yielded up his spirit.
There was at his funeral such a vast concourse of
Virgins and Monks of Syria, Cilicia, Pontus, and Ar-
menia, that many thought they had appointed the
meeting. The feast was observed as for a martyr, and
his body was interred near that of St. Basiliscus in the
same church.

He died and was buried on the fourteenth of Sej^tember,
or the eighteenth of the calends of October, under the
seventh Consulate of Honorius, and the second of Theodo-
sius, that is to say, in the year 407. He was about sixty
years old, and had governed the Church of Constantinople
six years to the time of his banishment, and in all nine
years and eight months.

Gibbon says, that the character of St. Chrysostom " was
consecrated by absence and persecution ; the presumed
faults of his administration were no longer remembered,
but every tongue repeated the praises of his genius and
his virtues. The respectful attention of the Christian
world was fixed on a desert spot among the mountains of
Taurus ; from that solitude, the Archbishop, whose active
mind was invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a fre-
quent correspondence with a great variety of persons,
while his letters show a firmness of mind, far superior to
that of Cicero in his exile. He extended his pastoral care
to the missions of Persia and Scythia; negociated with the
Roman pontiff, and the Emperor Honorius ; and boldly
appealed from a partial synod, to the supreme tribunal of
a free and general council. The mind of the illustrious
exile was still independent, though his captive body
was exposed to the vengeance of his oppressors." The
works of St. Chrysostom are very numerous. They con-
sist of commentaries, seven hundred homilies, orations.

Y4 CHYTRiEUS.

doctrinal treatises, and two hundred and forty-two epis-
tles. The best editions of his works are those of Sir
Henry Saville, Eton, 1613, 8 vols, folio, the Greek only;
and Montfaucon's in Greek and Latin, 1718 — 1738, 13
vols, folio. — Neander. Fleury. Tillemont. Dupin. SocraUs.
Sozornen.

CHURCH, THOMAS.

Thomas Church was born in 1707, and educated at
Brazennose College, Oxford. In 1740 he was instituted
to the vicarage of Battersea, and was afterwards promoted
to a prebendal stall in St. PauFs cathedral. He published
A Vindication of the Miraculous Powers which subsisted
in the first three Centuries of the Christian Church, in
answer to Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry, with a preface,
containing some observations on Dr. Mead's account of
the Demoniacs in his Medie Sacra, 1749. This was fol-
lowed, about a year after, by An Appeal to the serious and
unprejudiced, or a Second Vindication, &c. For these
works the university of Oxford conferred on him the
degree of D.D. by diploma. He also published anonym-
ously An Analysis of the Philosophical Works of the late
Lord Bolingbroke, 1755. He died in 1756. — Nicholss
Bowyer.

CHYTRiEUS, DAVID.

David Chytr>eus was born in 1530, at Ingelfing, in
Suabia. After receiving instruction in Greek and Latin
from Camerarius at Tubingen, and Hebrew at Heidelberg,
he studied theology under Melancthon at Wittemberg.

CIACONIUS. 75

He then travelled in Italy, and on his return to Germany-
was made professor of hermeneutics at Rostock. The
Emperor Maximilian II., Eric XIV., King of Sweden,
Christiern III. and Frederick II., Kings of Denmark, invi-
ted him to their respective kingdoms to establish churches
and schools, and they loaded him with presents. He
mainly contributed to the establishment of the university
of Helmstadt. He died on the 25th of June, 1600. He
wrote: — A Commentary on the Apocalypse, 8vo, 1575.
2. A History of the Confession of xiugsburg. 3. A Chro-
nology of Herodotus and Thucydides. A Collection of
all his works, which are mostly compilations, was printed
at Hanover in 1604, 2 vols, fol. — Melchior Adam. Fraheri
Theatnim.

CIACONIUS, or CHACON.

CiACONius was bora in 1540. He became a Domini-
can and titular Patriarch of Alexandria. A great num-
ber of his works remain ; the most considerable among
which is entitled, Vitse et Gesta liomanorum Pontificum
et Cardinalium, which, vrith the continuation by his
nephew, was published in 1602, two vols, folio; the
sequel down to Clement XII. was published by Marie
Guarnacci, Rome, 1751, 2 vols, folio; Bibliotheca Scripto-
rum ad annum 1583, Paris, 1731, folio; and Amsterdam,
1732, folio. He wrote also, Historia utriusque Belli
Dacici, in Columna Trajana expressi, cum Figuris ^neis,
Rome, 1616, folio. Ciaconius left in MS. a Universal Li-
brary of Authors, which falling into the hands of Camusat,
was published by him with numerous notes, Paris 1732,
folio. This work is a useful repository of authors. Ciaco-
nius died in 1599. — Moreri.

76 CLAGETT.

CLAGETT, "WILLIAM.

William Clagett was born at St. Edmund's-bury, in
1646, and educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where
he took his degree of D.D. in 1683. He first became
lecturer at St. Edmund's-bury, but afterwards was chosen
preacher to the society of Gray's Inn. He was also pre-
sented to the rectory of Farnham Royal in Buckingham-
shire, and elected lecturer of St. Michael Bassishaw% Lon-
don. He was chaplain in ordinary to King James XL,
and was one of the divines who made a stand against
Popery in that King's reign. Dr. Clagett died of the small
pox, March 28th, 1688. His works are — 1. A Discourse
concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit, two parts, 8vo.
The third part was destroyed by fire. Dr. Stebbing abridged
this useful book. 2. A Reply to a pamphlet called the
Mischief of Impositions, 4to. 3. An Answer to the Dis-
senter's objections to the Common Prayer, 4to. 4. Some
Tracts against the Romanists. 5. Four volumes of Ser-
mons, 8vo. — Biog. Brit.

clagett, NICHOLAS.

Nicholas Clagett, younger brother of the preceding,
was born in 1654, and educated first at the free school
of St. Edmund's-bury, and next at Christ's College, Cam-
bridge, where in 1704 he took his doctor's degree. In
1683 he obtained the rectory of Thurlo Parva in Suffolk;
in 1693 he was made Archdeacon of Sudbury, and in 1707
was presented to the rectory of Hitcham. He died in
1727. He published — 1. A Persuasive to an ingenious
trial of opinions in Religion, 4to. 2. Truth defended, and
boldness in error rebuked, against Whiston, 8vo. 3. Some
Sermons. His son Nicholas became Bishop of Exeter,
and died in 1746. — Biog. Diet.

CLARK. 7T

CLARIO, or CLARIUS, ISIDORE.

Isidore Claeius was born in the castle of Clario, near
Brescia, in Italy, in 1495. Dedicating himself to God
from his early years, he became in process of time a Bene-
dictine monk, and a celebrated preacher. He was advan-
ced to the dignity of Abbot of St. Mary de Cesena, and
was sent by Pope Paul III. to the council of Trent, where
in the fifth session which was held on the 17th of June,
1546, he assumed the quality of Abbot of Pontido, near
Bergamo. He was admired in that assembly for his
learning and eloquence, and he was probably in the coun-
cil when Paul III. gave him the bishopric of Foligno, in
Urabria ; he quickly retired to his diocese, and zealously
discharged the duties of his sacred office. He died in
1555. The principal work of Clarius was a reform of the
Vulgate, with annotations upon the difficult passages.
Though he extended this reform only to passages in which
he thought the sense of the original misrepresented, he
asserts that he has corrected it in upwards of 8000 places.
This freedom gave offence to the rigid Piomanists, and the
first edition of his work, printed at Venice in 1542, was
put into the Index Expurgatorius. Afterwards the depu-
ties of the council of Trent allowed it to be read, omitting
the preface and the prolegomena. Clarius was accused of
plagiarism, in having made great use of Sebastian Mun-
ster's annotations on the Old Testament without acknow-
ledgment; the fact is true, but the spirit of the times
would not allow him to quote a protestant author. His
Letters, with two Opuscula, were published at Modena,
1705, 4to.

CLARK, SAjrUEL.

Samuel Clark was born in 1599, at Woolston, in
Warwickshire, of which place his father was vicar above
forty years. He received his education at Emanuel

VOL. IV. H

7K CLARK.

College, Cambridge, after which he entered into orders,
and officiated some time at Shotwick, in Cheshire, from
whence he removed to Coventry, and afterwards to
Alcester, on the presentation of Lord Brooke. Here he
resided nine years, and then became minister of St.
Bennet Fink in London, where he continued till the
Kestoration. During the whole of this period he appears
to have disapproved of the practices of the numerous
sectaries which arose, and retained his attachment to
the constitution and doctrines of the Church, although
he objected to some of those points respecting ceremonies
and discipline, which ranks him among the ejected non-
conformists. In 1660, when Charles II. published a
declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs, the London
clergy drew up a congratulatory address, with a request for
the removal of re-ordination and surplices in colleges, &c.,
which Mr. Clark was appointed to present. In the
following year he was appointed one of the commissionera
for revising the book of common prayer. When ejected
for non-conformity, such was his idea of schism and
separation, that he quietly submitted to a retired and
studious life. From the Church, which he constantly
attended as a hearer, he says, he dared not separate, or
gather a private Church out of a true Church, which he
judged the Church of England to be. In this retirement
he continued twenty years, partly at Hammersmith, and
partly at Isleworth, revising what he had published, and
compiling other works, all of which appear to have been
frequently reprinted. He died in 1682, universally res-
pected for his piety, and especially for his moderation in
the contests which prevailed in his time. His principal
publications were, — 1. A Mirror or Looking-glass for Saints
and Sinners, containing remarkable examples of the fate
of persecutors, and vicious persons of all descriptions, and
notices of the lives of persons eminent for piety. 2. The
Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, containing the Lives of
the Fathers, Schoolmen, Reformers, and eminent modern

CLARKE. 79

Divines, &c., 1649, 4to. Clark was unquestionably the
first who published any collection of biography in English,
and who is respectfully noticed by Fuller, as his prede-
cessor. In 1650 he published a second part, and both
together, with additions, in a thick quarto of above lOOri
pages, in 1654, with many portraits in wood and copper ;
but the best edition is that of 1675, folio. 3. A General
Martyrology, or abridgment of Fox and of some more
recent authors, 1651, folio; to this, in 1652, he added an
English Martyrology, reprinted together in 1660, and in
1677, with an additional series of the lives of Divines,
4. The lives of sundry eminent persons in this latter age,
1683, folio. 5. The Marrow of Divinity, with sundry
Cases of Conscience, 1659, folio; a treatise against the
toleration of schismatics and separatists, entitled Golden
Apples, or Seasonable and Serious Counsel, &c., 1659,
12mo. In these volumes we have quoted him several
times. — Autobiography. Calamy. Fuller.

CLABK, SAMUEL,

Samuel Claek, son of the preceding, was educated at
Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellow-
ship, which he lost in the Rebellion for refusing the
Engagement. He was afterwards preferred to the living
of Grendon, in Buckinghamshire, from whence he was
ejected for non-conformity, at the Restoration. He, died
in 1701. He is chiefly known for his Annotations on the
Bible, 1690, folio. The author of the " Scripture Pro-
mises," was of this family, and was teacher of a congrega-
tion of Dissenters at St. Alban's. — Calamy. Granger.

CLAKKE, SAMUEL.

Samuel Clarke, an Arian heretic of high reputation in
the last century. He was born at Norwich, in 1675, and
was educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He was

80 CLARKE.

highly distinguished as a scholar and as an early advocate
in that university of the Newtonian Philosophy. On his
ordination he became chaplain to Dr. Moore, Bishop of
Norwich. In 1699 he published his practical essays on
Baptism, Confirmation, and Repentance : and in his
reflections upon a book called Amyntor, he skilfully
defended the genuineness of the writings of the apostolical
fathers. By Bishop Moore he was collated to the rectory
of Drayton, near Norwich, and in J 704 he was appointed
to the Boyle Lecture. This gave rise to his treatise on
the Being and Attributes of God. In this treatise he
endeavoured to shew that the Being of a God may be
demonstrated by arguments a priori. He was satirized
by Pope in the following lines, which- he puts in the
mouth of one of his dunces, addressing himself to his
goddess :

Let others creep by timid steps and slow,
On plain experience lay foundations low,
By common sense to common knowledge bred,
And last to nature's cause through nature led.
All- seeing in thy mists we want no guide,
Mother of Arrogance and source of Pride,
We nobly take the high Priori road.
And reason downward till we doubt of God.

In 1706 he removed to the rectory of St. Bennet, Paul's
Wharf, London, and about this time he began to entertain
heretical notions with respect to the Holy, Blessed, and
Glorious Trinity. The liberal divines and low churchmen
of the last century, generally had a tendency to Arianism,
or something worse. Indeed, this is the legitimate ten-
dency of low church views ; the question with such persons
is, how little may a man believe and yet hold the essentials
of religion, so that we may act together. And this question
once asked, will, of course, lower the whole tone of
theology. We ought, on the contrary, to endeavour to
master as many truths as possible, and encourage others
to do so, and it is because this is the desire and endeavour
of our more holy men, that our schools of theology are all

CLARKE. 81

of them in this age higher than they were in the last, the
lowest churchmen among us, and the most popular among
our preachers, taking grounds which their predecessors
would have thought too high.

He was engaged in 1706 in a controversy with the
learned Henry Dodwell ; and he translated into Latin
Sir Isaac Newton's treatise on optics. His Paraphrases
on the four Gospels had been published previously, and
before his perversion to the Arian heresy. He was now,
before he was suspected of Arianism, appointed chaplain
to Queen Anne, and in 1709 he became rector of
St. James's, Westminster ; he also took his doctor's degree,
wuth high honour to himself. In this year he corrected
Mr. Whiston's Translation of the Apostolical Constitu-
tions, and in 1712 he published his beautiful edition of
Caesar's Commentaries.

In 1712 he also published his Scripture-doctrine of ths
Trinity. This, as Bishop Van Mildert observes, was a
new era in polemics. The subject is concisely stated by
that good Bishop in his Life of Waterland.

" Dr. Clarke was a man of far too great importance,
from the strength of his understanding, the depth of his
knowledge, and the extent of his learning, to content him-
self with retailing trite arguments already advanced and
reiterated by the Anti-Trinitarians of the day. Indeed
he disclaimed the character of an Anti-Trinitaiian ; and
appears to have been firmly persuaded, that the doctrine
of the Trinity was a true Scripture-doctrine. His labours
were directed entirely to the proof of this doctrine, in the
sense in which he himself embraced it, and which he
laboured to prove was the sense both of Scripture and of
the Church of England. He stands distinguished, there-
fore, from such writers as Biddle, Firmin, Clendon, Emlyn,
and Whiston, in many prominent features of the doctrine
he advanced ; and consequently, the controversy with him
assumed a very different aspect from that in which Bishop
Bull had been engaged.

" The professed design of Dr. Clarke's book was indis-

89 CLARKE.

putably good. A full and digested collection of all the
texts relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, with a critical
interpretation of them, was a desideratum in theology,
and could hardly fail to be of advantage to the biblical
student. It served also to call off the attention of those
who had hitherto chiefly derived their notions of the sub-
ject from teachers who rested more upon metaphysics,
than upon the pure word of God ; and to bring the whole
matter of dispute into a train of more legitimate discus-
sion.

"Dr. Clarke, however, in this undertaking, set out upon
a latitudinarian principle, which did not augur very favour-
ably of the purpose which it might be intended to serve.
With reference to the Liturgy of the Church of England,
and to public formularies of faith, in general, he assumed
it as a maxim, ' That every person may reasonably agree
to such forms, whenever he can in any sense at all recon-
cile them with Scripture.' He also virtually, if not ex-
pressly, disclaimed the authority of the primitive Christian
writers, as expositors of the doctrines in question ; desiring
it to be understood, that he did not cite their works ' as
proofs of any of the propositions, but as illustrations only ;'
moreover, that his purpose in citing them was oftentimes
to point out their inconsistency with the doctrine they
professed to hold, and thus ' to shew how naturally truth
sometimes prevails by its own native clearness and evi-
dence, even against the strongest and most settled preju-
dices.' These were suspicious declarations, and would
naturally lead to an expectation, that the author might
find occasion, in the course of his work, to exemplify his
principles in a way not quite conformable either with the
sentiments of the primitive defenders of the faith, or with
those of the Church in which he was himself an accredited
teacher.

" Accordingly, the work was no sooner published and
read, than he was accused of applying these principles to
the introduction of opinions irreconcileable with the recei-
V ed doctrines of the Church Catholic in general, and with

CLARKE. 85

those of the Church of England in particular ; and the
work was reprobated as an indirect revival of the Arian
heresy. Among the writers who thus arraigned it, were
men of high character and respectability in the Church.
Dr. Wells, Mr. Nelson, Dr. James Knight, Bishop Gas-
trell. Dr. Edwards, Mr. Welchman, Mr. Edward Potter,
Dr. Bennett, and Mr. Richard Mayo, distinguished them-
selves, with considerable ability, by their animadversions
on this work. On the other side. Dr. Whitby, Dr. Sykes,
and Mr. John Jackson, appeared in favour of Dr. Clarke,
and upheld his cause with zeal and talent. The weight,
however, of public opinion, (so far at least, as related to
members of the Church of England,) preponderated
greatly against him ; and the subsequent proceedings of
the Lower House of Convocation proved, that the persua-
sions of the clergy in general were decidedly adverse to
those which he had espoused."

Not content with this publication. Dr. Clarke assumed
to himself authority to omit or alter the offices of the
Church, which he had sworn to observe, and on Trinity
Sunday, 1713, in order to avoid reading the proper pre-
face in the Communion Service, he omitted the admini-
stration of the Lord's Supper entirely, by which the pious
among his parishioners were greatly shocked, and seriously
injured. He was appointed to his rectory, not to indulge
in his own caprices, but as the servant of the Church, to
administer her offices to her children. This dereliction
of duty, together with the work which has been alluded to,
awakened the suspicions of Convocation, for at that time
the Church of England possessed a convocation, though
unfortunately it was a divided body. The more respect-
able of the clergy were Tories, and, except during the
last years of Queen Anne's reign, the government had
since the revolution been in the hands of the Whigs-
The consequence was that the Bishops were not selected
from the best portion of the clergy ; they were chosen
from their subserviency to a government which in ecclesi-
astical matters was tyrannical, and without reference to

84 CLARKE.

their conduct as clergymen. Between the Bishops and
their clergy there was a want of confidence, and the whole
discipline of the Church hecame relaxed. The lower
house, containing many sound divines, applied to the
Bishops on the 2nd of June, 1714, and stated that
Dr. Clarke's book was at variance with the catholic faith of
the Church of England ; and further, they requested the
upper house to take the matter into their most serious
consideration. The Bishops requested them to specify
the obnoxious parts in writing : and on the 23rd of June
they presented a paper of extracts, declaring their belief
that the passages fully supported their representation
respecting the erroneous character of the book.

At this stage of the inquiry, Dr. Clarke drew up a
qualifying paper concerning his faith, and presented it to
the upper house. In this paper a different view was
maintained from that which was conveyed by the extracts
from the book ; he also promised not to preach on the
subject, nor yet to publish any other books on the Trinity.
In this declarati(m he stated that the third and fourth
petitions in the Litany had never been omitted in his
church, and that the Athanasian Creed had not been
omitted at eleven o'clock prayers, but only at early prayers,
for the sake of brevity, by his curate, and not by his own
appointment.

Soon after, the doctor sent a second explanation to the
Bishop of London, in which he declared that his views, as
expressed in the former paper, were not different from
those which he had maintained in his books. He desired
therefore, that the declaration might be so understood,
and not as a retractation of anything which he had
written.

The upper house expressed themselves satisfied with
these explanations, and informed the lower house that
they did not think fit to proceed farther with the extracts
submitted to their notice. The lower house, on the con-
trary, resolved that Dr. Clarke had made no retractation,
and that his paper was not satisfactory.

CLARKE. 85

Many divines engaged in this controversy, but Dr.
Clarke's system was completely demolished by Dr. Water-
land.

Dr. Clarke assumed to himself the right of selecting or
composing hymns for the use of his congregation ; and
certainly, if a Calvinist may introduce hymns inculcating
the calvinistic heresy, it seems that something may be
said in palliation of Dr. Clarke's conduct in this par-
ticular. But how he could reconcile it to his conscience
to retain his situation as rector of St. James's it is difficult
to conceive. The doxology was altered by him thus :

To God through Christ, His only Son
Immortal Glory be :
And

To God through Christ, His Son, our Lord
All Glory be therefore.

From this scandalous attempt to introduce his heresy into
the Church by a side wind, the Bishop of London com-
pelled him to desist.

Although he reconciled it to his conscience to retain
his rectory, he is said to have more than once refused a
bishopric. It is highly probable that, through the
influence of Queen Caroline, he would obtain a bishopric,
for it is known that over the mind of that unhappy
woman he exercised considerable influence, for she died
an Arian heretic, refusing to receive the Holy Eucharist.

In 1727 Dr. Clarke refused the office of master of the
Mint, and in 17-29 he published his Homer. On the
11th of May this year he was taken ill, and on the 17th
he died, persisting, according to Bishop Hoadley, in his
heresy to the last

He left a widow and five children, having in his life-
time lost two.

According to his express desire, the same year as his
death, was published his Exjjosition of the Church Cate-

VOL IV. I

86 CLARKE.

chis7n : of which the following account is given by Bishop
Van Mildert : he studiously inculcated that religious
worship should be paid to the Father only, through the
Son, and in the Holy Spirit ; implying, that it is not paid
to either of these as their own due, but only through or
by them, ultimately to the Father. He represented also
the work of redemption, and that of sanctification, to be
from the Father only, by the Son and the Holy Ghost ; as
if these were merely instruments in His hand ; and that,
consequently, to Him, and not to them, is the glory exclu-
sively to be ascribed. Other passages of similar tendency
occur in this treatise, more or less derogating from the
essential divinity of our Lord and of the Holy Spirit;
passages, which Dr. Waterland illustrates by reference to
others in Dr. Clarke's Modest Plea, expressing more fully
and unreservedly what is covertly advanced in this
Exposition.

Dr. Waterland observes farther, that Dr. Clarke, in
explaining that answer in the Catechism which states our
belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost, " says nothing of God the Son, or God the
Holy Ghost : he never asserts the divinity of either, never
so much as gives them the title of God:" — moreover that
the titles and attributes ascribed to the Son and the Holy
Ghost, as well as to the Father, were so interpreted by
Dr. C. as to adapt them to those lower notions of their
divinity, which he had elsewhere maintained. Even the
form of baptism, in the name of each person in the
Trinity, he explained in such a way as to denote that we
are dedicated to the service and worship of God the
Father only.

These were points which had already been debated
between Dr. Clarke and Dr. Waterland, in their former
controversy. The subsequent remarks introduced a fresh
topic, not indeed unconnected with the others, but which
had not before been brought into discussion, though in
itself of no inconsiderable importance.

CLARKE. 87

On the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, Dr. W. objects
that the Exposition is by no means full and satisfactory ;
since the account given of the atonement by Christ seems
to place all its efficacy in our Lord's pure and spotless
character, not in any inherent propitiatory virtue belong-
ing to it ; nor, as Dr. W. observes, is it conceivable, that,
" supposing Christ to be a creature only. He could have
such a degree of merit, by anything He could do or suffer,
as thereby to purchase pardon for a whole world of
sinners."

Again ; the Exposition imperfectly stated the sense in
which the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice ; ascribing
to it that character in no higher acceptation than might
be ascribed to any other service of praise and thanks-
giving ; not taking into account that it is a solemn com-
memoration and representation to God of the sacrifice
offered on the cross, and an act of covenant also, in which
we lay claim to that, as our expiation, and feast upon it, as
our peac€-offering.

The same inadequate representation is charged upon
the Exposition, respecting the benefits of this holy sacra-
ment ; which Dr. Clarke represented to be nothing more
than that assurance of blessing and assistance from God
which accompany all religious and virtuous habits ; bene-
fits arising naturally from the good dispositions of the
recipient, and not from any special gifts of grace, or
spiritual advantages, communicated through the medium
of the sacrament itself. Dr. Clarke, indeed, expressly
says " of the two sacraments, in common with other posi-
tive institutions, that they have the nature only of means
to an end, and that therefore they are never to be com-
pared with moral virtues." On the contrary, Dr. W. con-
tends, that "moral virtues are rather to be considered
as means to an end, because they are previous qualifica-
tions for the sacraments, and have no proper efficacy
towards procuiing salvation, till they are improved and
rendered acceptable by these Christian performances."

88 CLARKE.

He asks, " What is the exercise of moral virtue, but the
exercise of obedience to some law, suppose of charity or
justice? But the worthy receiving of the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper is at once an exercise of obedience to
the law of Christ, and of faith, of worship, and of repent-
ance, and carries in it the strongest incitement, not only
to all moral virtues, but to all Christian graces." Neither
is there good reason " for slighting positive institutions
in general, in comparison with moral virtue." Man s' first
offence was breaking a positive precept. Abraham's obedi-
ence to a positive command obtained for him the special
favour of God. Obedience to positive institutions is an
exercise, and sometimes the noblest and best exercise,
of that love of God, which is the first and great com-
mandment: and there may be, in some cases, greater
excellency and more real virtue in obeying positive pre-
cepts, than in any moral virtue. Not that these should
be opposed to each other; since both are necessary,
and perfective of each other. "But," he adds, "if they
must be opposed and compared, 1 say, moral virtue is
but the handmaid leading to the door of salvation,
which the use of the sacraments at length opens, and
lets us in."

Bishop Van Mildert also remarks that there is reason
to believe that Dr. Clarke's opinions had taken deep root
among several communities of protestant dissenters, and
that to this cause may be traced some of the multifarious
schisms into which they were subsequently divided.
Hence, at least, appear to have arisen the several Unita-
rian congregations, which succeeded to the Arian, and
which are now for the most part, become Socinian. In
the West of England these opinions have ever since con-
tinued to have abettiors. The Arian meeting-house at
Exeter retained its appropriate designation long after
other congregations of the kind had dispersed, and were
forgotten. It has now, however, passed into other hands :
and the Unitarians of the present day, who still abound

CLARKE. 8d

In that district, would probably bo almost as reluctant to
subscribe to Dr. Clarke's creed, as to that of Dr. Water-
land. — Bishop Hoadleys Life of Dr. Clarke. Bishop Van
Mildert's Life of Dr. Waterland. Lathhurys Hist, of Con-
vocation. Whistons Memoir of Clarke.

CLARKE, A LURED.

Altjred Clarke, a benevolent English divine, was bom
in 1696. After receiving his early education at St. Paul's
School, he was admitted pensioner of Corpus Chiisti
College, Cambridge, of which he was made fellow in 1718.
In 17-23 he was collated to the rectory of Chilbolton, in
Hampshire, and was soon after installed prebendary of
Winchester. He was appointed one of the chaplains in
ordinary to George I. and George II., and was promoted
to a prebend in the church of Westminster in 1731. In
1740 he was advanced by the King to the daauery of
Exeter ; and died the same year. His printed works are
few, consisting only of four occasional sermons, and an
Essay towards the Character of Queen Caroline, published
in 1738.

As a man, his character stands very high. He is said
to have spent the whole surplus of his annual income in
works of hospitality and charity; and determined with
himself never to have in reserve, how great soever his
revenue might be, more than a sum sufficient to defray
the expenses of his funeral. The most remarkable instance
of his active benevolence was in the case of the sick hos-
pital at Winchester. Its institution, which was the first
of the kind in England, those of the metropolis only
excepted, owes its existence chiefly to the industry and
indefatigable zeal of Dr. Alured Clarke, who in 1736
recommended the scheme to the public by every art of
persuasion, and was so successful, that the first annual
subscription amounted to upwards of £600. And when
the great utility of such a foundation became more ap-
2i

90 CLARKE.

parent, its revenue soon increased to upwards of a £1000
per annum, and institutions of a like nature were in a
short time established throughout the kingdom. The
orders and constitutions of Winchester Infirmary were
drawn up by Dr. Clarke, and are a proof of great wisdom
in a branch of political economy, at that time very little
understood. He began a similar institution upon his
removal to Exeter, (where he had, with his usual liberality,
expended a large sum of money upon the repair of his
deanery house,) but did not live long enough to see his
laudable design fully executed. — Masters. Hist, of Corjnis
Christi College. History of Winchester.

CLABKE, JOHN.

John Clarke was born at Norwich. He was bred to
the business of a weaver, but afterwards went to the
university of Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree
of D.D. By the interest of his brother he obtained a
prebend in Norwich cathedral, was appointed chaplain in
ordinary to the King, and lastly promoted to the deanery
of Salisbury. He died in 1759. Dean Clarke preached
the Boyle's Lecture, and published the sermons with the
title of the Origin of Evil, 2 vols, 8vo. His other works
are, a translation of Rohault's System of Physic, 2 vols,
8vo ; another of Grotius de Veritate, with Le Clerc's Notes
8vo ; and the Notes belonging to Wollaston's Religion
of Nature.

CLARKE, SAMUEL.

Samuel Clarke was born at Brackley, in Northampton-
shire, in 1623. He became a student at Merton College,
Oxford, and in 1648 took his masters degree. In 1650
he kept a school at Islington, where he assisted in
Walton's Polyglott. In 1Q58 he returned to the univer-

CLAUDE. 91

sit J, and became superior beadle of law, as also architypo-
graphus, being the last person who united the two offices.
He died in 1669. His works are — 1. Variae lectiones et
observationes in Chaldaicum paraphrasim, inserted in the
sixth volume of the Polyglott Bible. 2. Scientia metrica
et rhythmica : seu tractatus de jDrosodia Arabica ex Autho-
ribus probatissimis eruta, 8vo. 3. Septimum Bibliorum
Polyglottum volumen cum versionibus antiquissimis,
non Chaldaica tantum, sed .Syriacis, ^thiopicis, Copticis,
Arabicis, Persicis contextum. This last is in MS. There
goes under his name a translation out of Hebrew into
Latin, of a piece called Massereth Beracoth, 8vo. 1667. —
Wood.

CLAEKSON, DAVID.

David Clakkson was born at Bradford, in 1622, and was
educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, of which college he
became a fellow. He was tutor to Tillotson, and obtained
the living of Mortlake, in Surrey. On the Restoration he
became a non-conformist, and died in 1686. Of his works,
which principally consist of occasional sermons, and a
volume of sermons, in folio, the most remarkable were,
one entitled No Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy in the
Primitive Times, 1681, 4to, in answer to Dr. Stillingfleet ;
and another on the same subject, printed after his death,
under the title of Primitive Episcopacy, 1688 ; this was
answered by Dr. Henry Maurice in 1691, in his Defence
of Diocesan Episcopacy. — Gen. Diet.

CLAUDE, JOHN.

John Claude was born at Sauvetat, near Agen, in 1619.
He studied divinity at Montauban, and there entered the
protestant ministry in 1645, and ministered in the church
of la Treyne, whence he was removed to St. Afric, in
Rovergne, and eight years after to Nismes. Here he also

92 CLAUDIUS.

remained eight years, and being prohibited to exercise the
functions of a minister in Languedoc, he went to Mon-
tauban, and settled in 1616 at Charenton. He was en-
gaged in controversies with Bossuet, Arnauld, Nicole, and
other distinguished Romanists. On October 2'2nd, 1685,
the day on which the revocation of the edict of Nantes was
registered at Paris, Claude, at ten in the morning, was
ordered to leave France in twenty-four hours. On his
arrival in Holland, he received a large pension from the
Prince of Orange. He used to preach occasionally at the
Hague ; and his last sermon was on Christmas-day, 1686,
at the conclusion of which he was seized with an illness,
of which he died on the 13th of January following. His
life, written by M. de la Devaize, was translated into
English, and published in London, 1688, 4to. It is very
eulogistic, but there does not appear to be anything in the
volume which would be interesting or edifying to the
readers of this work. His Historical Defence of the
Pteformation was published in English by T. B., London,
1683, 4to; and his Essay on the Composition of a
Sermon, which he wrote about the year 1676, for the use
of his son, was translated and published in English, in
1778, by Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge, 2 vols, 8vo, with a
Life of the Author, and notes. A new edition was pub-
lished in 1796, by the Rev. Charles Simeon, of King's
College, Cambridge. — Devaize.

CLAUDIUS, CLEMENS.

Clemens Claudius was born in Spain at the close of
the 8th century, and was a disciple of Felix, Bishop of
Urgel, whom he accompanied into France, Italy, and Ger-
many, but whose errors he afterwards renounced, and
obtained access to the court of Louis le Debonaire, Em-
peror and King of France, who admitted him among his
almoners and chaplains, and in 817 promoted him to
the see of Turin. He soon after began to exercise the

CLAUDIUS. 93

duties of his function, by ordering all images, and even
the cross, to be cast out of the churches, and committed
to the flames. The year following he composed a treatise,
in which he not only defended these vehement proceedings,
and declared against the use, as well as the worship of
images, but also broached several other opinions, that
were quite contrary to the notions of the multitude, and
to the prejudices of the times. He denied, among other
things, in opposition to the Greeks, that the cross was to
be honoured with any kind of worship ; he treated relics
with the utmost contempt, as absolutely destitute of the
virtues that were attributed to them, and censured with
much freedom and severity those pilgrimages to the holy
land, and those voyages to the tombs of the saints, which,
in this century, were looked upon as extremely salutary,
and particularly meritorious. This noble stand, in the
defence of true religion, drew upon Claudius a multitude
of adversaries ; the sons of superstition rushed upon him
from all quarters; Theodemir Dungallus, Jonas of Orleans,
and Walafridus Strabo united to overwhelm him with
their voluminous answers. But the learned and venerable
prelate maintained his ground, and supported his cause
with such dexterity and force, that it remained triumphant,
and gained new credit. And hence it happened, that the
city of Turin and the adjacent country were, for a long
time after the death of Claudius, much less infected with
superstition than the other parts of Europe.

His commentaries on several parts of the Old and New
Testaments are still extant in MS. in various French
libraries. The only works of his that have been published
are, his Prefaces to the Book of Leviticus, and to the
Epistle to the Ephesians, and his Commentary on the
Galatians, Paris, 154-2, in which he everywhere asserts
the equality of all the Apostles with St. Peter, owns Jesus
Christ as the proper head of the Church, and inveighs
against the doctrine of human merits, and against mak-
ing tradition of co-ordinate authority with the divine
word. He maintains salvation by faith alone, admits the

94 CLAYTON.

fallibility of the Church, exposes the futility of praying
for the dead, and of the idolatrous practices then supported
by the lioman see. He died in 839. — Mosheim, Dupin.
Moreri.

CLAYTON, ROBERT.

This unprincipled man was born in 1695, in Dublin,
his father being dean of Kildare. He was educated at
Westminster School and at Trinity College, Dublin. He
married a daughter of Chief Baron Donellan, and in
many ways evinced a benevolent disposition. A benevo-
lent action on his part was the cause of his introduction
to Dr. Samuel Clarke, whose life has already been given,
and by Dr. Clarke his principles were corrupted : he be-
came an Arian heretic. Through Clarke he was introduced
to (Jueen Caroline, and by her recommended to Lord
Carteret when he was at the head of the Irish govern-
ment. The consequence of this recommendation was
that Clayton was offered the bishopric of Killala, and
though an Arian heretic, though obliged to subscribe the
articles, though compelled to declare his unfeigned assent
and consent to all and every thing contained in and pre-
scribed by the Book of Common Prayer, the wretched
man perjured himself and accepted the office, and was
afterwards translated first to Cork, and then to Clogher.
His first publication was an Introduction to the History
of the Jews, afterwards translated into French. His next
work was the Chronology of the Hebrew Bible vindicated;
the Facts compared with other ancient Histories, and the
Difficulties explained, from the Flood to the Death of
Moses ; together with some Conjectures in Relation to
Egypt during that Period of Time ; also two Maps, in
which are attempted to be settled the Journeyings of the
Children of Israel, 1747, 4to. In 1710 he published a
Dissertation on Prophecy, which was followed by an Im-
partial Enquiry into the Time of the (Joming of the
Messiah, in two letters to an eminent Jew. In the same

CLAYTON. 95

year (1751), appeared the Essay on Spirit ; a performance
which excited very general attention, and was productive
of a sharp controversy. Its object was to recommend the
Arian doctrine of the inferiority of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and to prepare the way for corresponding
alterations in the Liturgy. This work, though ascribed
to Dr. Clayton, was, in fact, the production of a young
clergyman in his diocese, whom he befriended so far as to
take the expense and responsibility of the publication
upon himself. Clayton fathered the work and had the
discredit of it. The Essay was demolished by the power-
ful pen of Jones of Nayland. It is thus spoken of by
Bishop Warburton in a letter to Bishop Hurd, " The
Bishop of Clogher, or some such heathenish name, in
Ireland, has just published a book. It is made up out of
the rubbish of the heresies ; of a much ranker cast than
common Arianism. Jesus Christ is Michael, and the Holy
Ghost, Gabriel, &c. This might be heresy in an English
bishop, but in an Irish, it is only a blunder. But thank
God, our bishops are far from making or vending heresies;
though for the good of the Church, they have excellent
eyes at spying it out wherever it skulks or lies hid."

He had before this, we may presume, kept his Arianism
to himself. He was now the avowed champion of this
heresy, and bad as the times were, they were not such as
would tolerate the advancement of an Arian, or, we may
presume, a Sabellian to an archie piscopal see. In 1752
he was recommended by the Duke of Dorset, then viceroy
of Ireland, to the vacant archbishopric of Tuam ; but this
was refused, solely on account of his being regarded as
the writer of the Essay. In 1752 he published A Vindi-
cation of the Histories of the Old and New Testament ;
in answer to the Objections of the late Lord Bolingbroke ;
in two letters to a young nobleman, 1752, Bvo ; an able
work. In 1754 he published the second part of his Vin-
dication of the Histories of the Old and New Testament,
which was successfully attacked by Alexander Catcott.
On the ^ud of February, 17 56, he openly avowed his

U6 CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

Arian principles, by proposing in the Irish House of
Lords, that the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds should for
the future be left out of the Liturgy of the Church of
Ireland. In 1757 he pubUshed the third part of his
Vindication of the Histories of the Old and New Testa-
jnent, in which he renewed his attacks upon the Trinity,
and gave up so many doctrines as indefensible, and ad-
vanced others so contradictory to the Thirty-nine Articles,
that the Bishops of the Church of Ireland determined to
proceed against him. Accordingly the King ordered the
lord-lieutenant to take the proper steps towards a legal
prosecution of the Bishop of Clogher. A day was lixed
for a general meeting of the Irish prelates at the house of
the primate, to which Dr. Clayton was summoned, that he
might receive from them the notification of their inten-
tions. A censure was certain ; a deprivation was appre-
hended. But, before the time appointed, he was seized
with a nervous fever, of which he died on the 26th of
February, 1758. — Biog. Brit. Nicholss Bowyer. War-
burtons Letters.

CLEMENS, TlTUS FLAVIU8 ALEXANDRINUS.

From Eusebius we learn that this eminent father of
the Christian Church, who flourished between the years
192 and '217, was a convert from heathenism. According
to Epiphanius he was by some called an Athenian, by
others an Alexandrian, whence Cave infers that he was
born at Athens, and studied at Alexandria ; of the Church
of Alexandria, according to Jerome, he became a presbyter.
He had for his master Pantoenus of Alexandria, and after
his decease he himself became master of the catechetical
school, where he had for his hearer the celebrated Origen.
"When Severus began a persecution against the Chris-
tians, for which he pleaded a rebellion of the Jews (for the
pagans had not as yet learned to distinguish Jews and
Christians,) Clemens left Egypt to escape the violence of
it; and upon this occasion he drew up a discourse, to

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. 97

prove the lawfulness of flying in times of persecution. He
then went to Jerusalem, and took up his abode for some
time with Alexander, who was soon after Bishop of that
see. From Antioch he returned to Alexandria. The
time of his death is not known, hut he is supposed to
have lived till about the close of Caracalla's reign.

St. Jerome gives the following list of his works ; —

STpw/xoTc'i? in eight books.

Hypotyposes in eight books.

One book addressed to the Gentiles.

Three books entitled TTatoaywyoj.

One book concerning Easter.

A Discourse concerning Fasting.

A Discourse, entitled, " Who is the Rich man that
shall U Saved ?"

One book on Slander.

One on the Ecclesiastical Canons, and against those
who follow the errors of the Jews, addressed to Alexander,
Bishop of Jerusalem,

This account of the works of Clemens is principally
derived from Eusebius, who also mentions an Exhortation
to Patience, addressed to the newly Baptized. The ad-
dress to the Gentiles, the Pfedagogus, the Stromata, and
the tract entitled " Who is the Rich Man that shall be
Saved ?"' have come down to us nearly entire. Of the
other works we have only fragments.

The works of Clemens Alexandrinus are deeply interest-
ing, as throwing light upon the manners and modes of
thought prevalent in his time. This observation is espe-
cially applicable to the Stromata. His works are not so
important perhaps as some others to the theological
student, but he would not omit to read an author so full
of interest, assisted as he now is, by the valuable work of
Bishop Kaye; and there is much in this father which
strengthens the cause of the Church of England against
the peculiarities of R^jme. Speaking of angels, Pjishop
Kaye remarks, tliat we find in Clemens nothing to coun-

VOL. JV. K

m CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

tenance the notion that prayers ought to be addressed
to them. He represents them, as well as men, as pray-
ing for blessings from God. Speaking of the heretics,
Clemens says, "that they did not transmit or interpret the
Scriptures agreeably to the dignity of God ; for the under-
standing and the cultivation of the pious tradition, agree-
ably to the teaching of the Lord delivered by the Apostles,
is a deposit to be rendered to God. — The Scriptures are
to be interpreted according to the canon of the truth.
Neither the prophets, nor the Saviour Himself, announced
the divine mysteries so as to be easily comprehended by
every one, but spoke in parables ; which will be under-
stood by those who adhere to the interpretation of the
Scriptures according to the ecclesiastical rule ; and that
rule is, the harmony of the law and the prophets with the
covenant delivered by the Lord during His presence on
earth. "

When we proceed to inquire what were the mysterious
truths which had been thus transmitted by unwritten
tradition, and were unfitted for the ear of the common
believer, we shall find that they consisted chiefly of pre-
cepts for the formation of the true Gnostic — the perfect
Christian. The use to which the Romish Church applies
unwritten tradition and the Disciplina Arcani — in order
to account for the total silence of the first ages of
Christianity respecting certain doctrines which it now
requires its followers to believe, as necessary to salvation-
receives no sanction from the writings of Clemens. The
same Scriptures were placed in the hands of Clemens'
Gnostic, and of the common believer ; but he interpreted
them on different principles ; he affixed to them a higher
and more spiritual meaning. The same doctrines were
proposed as the objects of his faith, but he explained
them in a different manner ; he discovered in them
hidden meanings which are not discernable by the vulgar
eye. Clemens' Esoteric system agrees only in one respect
with the Romish Disciplina Arcani; it is equally desti-
tute of solid foundation.

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. 99

Far, however, from teaching his Gnostic to rely on
unwritten tradition, Clemens says, " that they who are
labouring after excellence, will not stop in their search of
truth, until they have obtained proof of that which they
believe from the Scriptures themselves." He alleges that
the heretics perverted the Scriptures according to their
lusts ; that they did not obey the Divine Scriptures, and
kicked off the tradition of the Church. He says that, in
cases in which it is not sufficient merely to state a
doctrine, but we are also required to prove what we affirm,
we then do not look for human testimony, but appeal to
the voice of the Lord, which is a greater surety than all
demonstration ; or rather is the only demonstration. With
reference to this knowledge, they who merely taste the
Scriptures are believers; they who proceed further are
accurate indexes (yvw/xovE?) of the truth; they are Gnos-
tics. Thus w^e, bringing proof respecting the Scriptures
from the Scriptures themselves, rest our belief on demon-
stration. Clemens says, that the Gnostic follows witherso-
ever God leads him in the divinely inspired Scriptures ;
and couples clear demonstration from the testimony of the
Scriptures with knowledge (r)' yvwo-i?), when he speaks of
the remedies of ignorance. He opposes the tradition of
the blessed Apostles and teachers, which was in agree-
ment with the divinely-inspired Scriptures, to human
doctrines ; and repeatedly asserts the unity of the Aposto-
lic tradition.

Clemens, says Bishop Kaye, uniformly connects Regen-
eration with Baptism. " The Paedagogue," he says, " forms
man out of the dust, regenerates him with water, causes
him to grow by the Spirit." The effects of baptism are
thus described. " Our transgressions are remitted by one
sovereign medicine, the baptism according to the Word
(xoyiKw jSaTTTiVjotaTt). We are cleansed from all our sins,
and cease at once to be wicked. This is one grace of
illumination, that we are no longer the same in conversa-
tion (tov t^ottov) as before we were washed ; inasmuch
as knowledge rises together with illumination, shining

100 CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

around the understanding; and we who were without
learning (a|u,a9E'tV) are instantly stjled learners {jxa^rtral),
this learning having at some former time been conferred
upon us ; for we cannot name the precise time ; since
catechetical instruction leads to faith, and faith is instruct-
ed by the Holy Spirit in baptism," Our flesh is said to
become precious, being regenerated by water.

There is a very strong passage in the Paedagogue, lib. 1 .
cap 6. which is not that we remember, quoted by Bishop
Kaye. " Being baptized we are illuminated, being illumi-
nated we are made sons, being made sons we are perfected,
being perfected we are immortahzed. — This work is
variously denominated ; grace, and illumination, and per-
fection, and laver : laver, by which we wipe off sins ; grace,
by which the penalties due to sins are remitted ; illumina-
tion, by which that holy and salutary light is viewed, that
is, by which we gaze on the Divine Being." Baptism is
here supposed to be the instrument of illumination,
remission, adoption, perfection, salvation; under which,
jointly considered, must be comprehended all that con-
cerns justification, though the name itself is not used.

Dr. Waterland remarks that he had elevated sentiments
of the Christian Eucharist, but such as require close
attention to understand. He writes thus :

" The Blood of the Lord is twofold, the carnal by which
we are redeemed from corruption, and the spiritual by
which we are anointed : to drink the Blood of Jesus is to .
partake of our Lord's immortality. Moreover, the power
of the Word is the Spirit, as blood is of the flesh. And
correspondently, as wine is mingled with water, so is the
Spirit with the man : and as the mingled cup goes for
drink, so the Spirit leads to immortality. x\gain, the
mixture of these two, viz. of the drink and of the Logos
together, is called the Eucharist, viz. glorious and excel-
lent grace, whereof those who partake in faith are sancti-
fied, both body and soul. The Father's appointment
mystically tempers man, a divine mixture, with the Spirit
and the Logos : for, in very deed, the Spirit joins himself

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. 101

with the soul as sustained by him, and the Logos with the
flesh, for which the Logos became flesh." What I have
to observe, saj's Dr. Waterland, of these Hnes of Clemens,
may be comprised in the particulars here following.

1. The first thing to be taken notice of, is the twofold
Blood of Christ: by which Clemens understands the
natural blood shed upon the cross, and the spiritual blood
exhibited in the Eucharist, namely, spiritual graces, the
unction of the Holy Spirit, and union with the Logos,
together with what is consequent thereupon. As to parallel
places of the Fathers, who speak of the anointing in the
Eucharist, with the Blood of Christ through the Spirit, the
reader may consult Mr. Aubertine ; or Bishop Fell in his
notes upon Cyprian. St. Jerome seems to have used
the like distinction with Clemens between the natural
and spiritual Body and Blood of Christ. If we would
take in all the several kinds of our Lord's Body, or all
the notions that have gone under that name, they amount
to these four. 1. His natural body, considered first as
mortal, and next as immortal. 2. His typical, or sym-
bolical body, viz. the outward sign in the Eucharist.
3. His spiritual body, in or out of the Eucharist, viz.
the thing signified. 4. His mystical body, that is. His
Church. But I proceed.

■2. The next observation to be made upon Clemens is,
that he manifestly excludes the natural body of Christ
from being literally or locally present in the Sacrament,
admitting only the spiritual ; which he interprets of the
Logos and of the Holy Spirit, one conceived more parti-
cularly to sanctify the body, and the other the soul, and
both inhabiting the regenerate man. Which general doc-
trine, abstracting from the case of the Eucharist, is founded
in express Scripture, and may by just and clear conse-
quence be applied to the Eucharist, in virtue of the words
of the institution, and of John vi. and other texts, besides
the plain nature and reason of the thing.

3. Another thing to be observed of Clemens is, that as
K-2

102 CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

he plainly rejects any corporal and local presence, sr) does
he as plainly reject the low notions of the figurists, or
memorialists ; for, no man ever expressed himself more
strongly in favour of spiritual graces conveyed in the
Eucharist.

4. It may be farther noted, which shows our author's
care and accuracy, that he brings not the Logos and tloly
Spirit so much upon the elements, as upon the persons,
viz. the worthy receivers, to sanctify them both in body
and soul. He does indeed speak of the mixture of the
wine and the Logos ; and if he is to be understood of the
personal, and not vocal. Word, he then supposes the
Eucharist to consist of two things, earthly and heavenly,
just as Iremeus before him did : but even upon that sup-
position, he might really mean no more than that the com-
municant received both together, both at the same instant.
They were only so far mixed, as being both administered
at the same time, and to the same person, receiving the
one with his mouth, and the other with his mind, strength-
ened at once in body and in soul. Clemens, in another
place, cites part of the institution, by memory perhaps, as
follows : "He blessed the wine, saying, Take, drink ; this
is my Blood. This blood of the grape mystically signifies
the Word poured forth for many, for the remission of sins,
that holy torrent of gladness." Three things are obser-
vable from this passage : one, that the wine of the Euchar-
ist, after consecration, is still the blood of the grape:
another, that it is called the Blood of Christ, or Blood of
the Logos, (as Origen also styles it,) symbolically signify-
ing and exhibiting the fruits of the passion : lastly, that
those fruits are owing to the union of the Logos with the
suffering humanity. These principles all naturally fall in
with the accounts I have before given."

Clemens' woi'ks were published, with a Latin transla-
tion, by J. Potter, 2 vols, folio, Oxford, 1715 ; and also at
Wurzburg, 3 vols. 8vo. 1780. — Works. Eusebius. Kaye.
Cave. Waterland. hardner.

CLEMENS ROMANUS. 103

CLEMENS, EOMANUS.

It will be unnecessary to state all that is said of this
apostolical father in Tillemont and Cave, since the facts
they state, as is admitted by the learned writers them-
selves, are of questionable authority. In truth, very little
is known of Clemens or Clement, except that he is the
same Clement of whom St. Paul speaks as one of his
fellow labourers, (Phil. iv. 8.) whose names are in the
book of life. Origen, Eusebius, and others of the ancients
assert this as a fact of which there was no doubt. St. Ire-
naeus assures us that at least he saw the Apostles, that he
conversed with them, and when he was made Bishop of
Rome, the sound of his preaching was still, as it were,
ringing in his ears ; that he always placed before his eyes
the rules which they had given him and the example of
their behaviour. It is also certain that he was Bishop of
Rome. But there is much difficulty in settling the succes-
sion of the first Bishops of that see. Bishop Pearson
supposes, that Clemens was Bishop of Rome from the
year of our Lord 69, or 70, to the year 83, the second of
Domitian : Pagi, that Clemens succeeded Linus in 61,
and sat in the see of Rome till 77, when he abdicated,
and died long after a martyr in the year 100. Those
learned men, who place the bishopric of Clemens so early,
or that suppose he might write this epistle before he was
Bishop, (as Dodw^ell,) usually place it before the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem. Archbishop Wake concludes, that thi^
epistle was written shortly after the end of the persecution
under Nero, between the 64th and 70th year of Christ. Le
Clerc places it in the year 69, and Dodwell in 64. Dupin,
Tillemont, and others think, he was not Bishop till the
year 91 or 93. This is the more common opinion, and is
agreeable to the sentiments of Irenseus, Eusebius, and
others, the most ancient Christian writers. Of the former
of two epistles ascribed to him, Clemens is universally
regarded as the author. The epistle is written in the
name of the whole Church of Rome to the Church of

104 CLEMENS ROMANUS.

Corinth. And therefore it is called at one time the epistle
of Clemens, and at another the epistle of the Romans to
the Corinthians. The main design of it is to compose
some dissensions, which there were in the Church of
Corinth about their spiritual guides and governors, which
dissensions seem to have been raised by a few turbulent
and selfish men among them. Upon this occasion Cle-
mens recommends not only concord and harmony, but
love in general, humility, and all the virtues of a good life,
and divers of the great articles and principles of religion.
The style is clear and simple. It is called by the ancients
an excellent, an useful, a great and admirable epistle.
And the epistle still in our hands deserves all these com-
mendations : though not entire, there being some pages
wanting in the manuscript of it : and though we have but
one ancient manuscript of it remaining.

Tillemont observes that Photius finds fault with three
things in this epistle to the Corinthians ; one is, that
St. Clemens supposes certain worlds lying beyond the
ocean ; another, that he tells the story of the Phoenix as
real matter of fact ; and the third, that he only uses such
w^ords as shew the humanity of Jesus Christ, calling Him
High Priest and our Head, but saying nothing of Him
great and noble, or that expresses His divinity

The first of these remarks should give us no great
trouble, since we know assuredly what the ancients ad-
vanced only with uncertainty. For that expression cited
by St. Jerome, St. Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
signifies, according to the last, nothing but what we call
the Antipodes. As to the Phoenix, if it is a fault in
St. Clemens to mention it, it is common to him with
many very considerable authors, both Christian and
Pagan. St. Cyril of Jerusalem cites this passage without
having anything to say against it. With regard to the
third point, it would be sufiicient to justify St. Clemens,
to consider that as Photius acknowledges himself, he says
nothing but what is agreeable to the faith of the Church
upon the divinity of Jesus Christ : to which we may add,

CLEMENS ROMANUS. IQS

that according to St. Athanasius, it was the custom of the
Apostles to speak more commonly of our Saviour's
humanity than of His divinity. But even in this epistle
there is mention made of the sufferings of God, which
Photius probably did not observe, and which is sufficient
to condemn at once both Arianism and the heresy of
Nestorius.

This primitive Bishop of Eome did not arrogate to
himself papal power; if he had pretended to any such
power as that which the popes of Rome now assume, he
would have issued his commands to the Church of
Corinth, whereas he merely ventures to give them advice,
and that not in his own name, but in the name of the
Church, the address of the epistle being, " The Church
of God which is at Rome to the Church of God which is
at Corinth, elect, sanctified, by the will of God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord ; grace and peace from Almighty
God by Jesus Christ be multiplied upon you."

" If," says a modern writer, " the claims of authority be
well grounded, they will, of course, be highest when nearest
to their source : yet upon this supposition how unaccount-
able is the conduct of Clemens and the Church of Rome.
We have here the first instance upon record in which that
Church thought proper to interpose in the religious con-
cerns of its brethren. It might, therefore, have been ex-
pected, that the Bishop of Rome should have begun with
asserting his own sovereign authority over the Corinthian
and all other Churches ; should have required implicit
obedience to his mandates; and, in case of non-compliance,
denounced the rebellious assembly cut off from the body
of the faithful : yet, as if it were intended by Providence,
that the first known interposition of a Roman pontiff in
the affairs of another Church should remain as a lesson of
humility, or a reproof of arrogance to his successors, the
evangelical author of this epistle seems purposely to ex-
tenuate his authority even over his own people ; merges
even his own name in that of his Church ; and though he
reproves the misconduct of the Corinthians with freedom,

106 CLEMENS ROMANUS.

and even with dignity, yet it is only with the freedom of
a benevolent equal, and the dignity of a grieved friend.
But above all, humility and patience are conspicuous : no
'holy rage,' no zeal calling for judgments, no asperity of
reproach : but prayers and intreaties, or, at most, expostu-
lations and arguments, constituted, at that time, the spi-
ritual weapons of the Roman Church."

Dr. Waterland shews that he holds the view of justi-
fication by faith as retained in the Church of England,
in opposition to the Trentine doctrine. Clemens says :
" They (the ancient Patriarchs) were all therefore greatly
glorified and magnified ; not for their own sake, or for
their own works, or for the righteousness which they them-
selves wrought, but through His good pleasure. And we
also being called through His good pleasure in Christ
Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our own
wisdom, or knowledge, or piety, or the works which we
have done in holiness of heart, but by that faith by which
Almighty God justified all from the beginning." " Here,"
remarks Dr. Waterland, "it is observable, that the word
faith does not stand for the whole system of Christianity,
or for Christian belief at large, but for some particular
self-denying principle by which good men, even under the
patriarchal and legal dispensations, laid hold on the mercy
and promises of God, referring all, not to themselves or
their own deservings, but to divine goodness, in and
through a Mediator. It is true, Clemens elsewhere, and
St. Paul almost every where, insists upon true holiness of
heart and obedience of life, as indispensable conditions of
salvation, or justification ; and of that, one would think
there could be no question among men of any judgment
or probity : but the question about conditions is very
distinct from the other question about instruments ; and
therefore both parts may be true, viz. that faith and obedi-
ence are equally conditions, and equally indispensable
where opportunities permit ; and yet faith over and above
is emphatically the instrument both of receiving and
holding justification, or a title to salvation."

CLEMENS ROMANUS. 107

St. Clemens asserts the doctrine of apostolical succession
thus, " The Apostles have preached to us from our Lord
Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ from God. Christ, therefore,
was sent bj God ; the Apostles by Christ, Both missions
were in order, according to the will of God. Having,
therefore, received their commission, being thoroughly
assured of the resurrection of our Lord, and believing in
the Word of God, with the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
they went abroad, declaring that the kingdom of God was
at hand. Thus they travelled through different countries
and cities, and appointed the first-fruits of their ministry,
after they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops
and deacons over those who should afterwards believe.

" The Apostles themselves were informed by our Lord
Jesus Christ, that contentions would arise concerning the
ministry. On this account, therefore, they not only them-
selves ordained ministers, as we have before mentioned ;
but also gave directions that on their decease, other chosen
and approved men should succeed them. We cannot,
therefore, but think it unjust to eject such persons from
the ministry as were ordained (with the approbation of the
whole Church) either by the Apostles or holy men succeed-
ing them ; who have ministered to the tlock of Christ in
a humble, peaceable, and disinterested manner, and for a
series of years have been well reported of by all. For
surely it is a sin of no small magnitude to dismiss from
that office such blameless and holy pastors ! Happy are
those presbyters, who have already finished their course,
and died in the fruitful discharge of their labours; they
have now no reason to fear that any one should remove
them from the place appointed for them. But, alas ! we
learn that you have ejected some excellent ministers,
whose blameless lives were an ornament to their profession.
Ye are contentious, brethren, and zealous for things which
belong not to salvation. Search the Scriptures, the faith-
ful records of the Holy Spirit. There you find that good
men were persecuted indeed, but by the wicked ; were
imprisoned, but by the unholy ; were stoned, but by trans-

108 CLEMENS ROMANUS.

gressors ; were murdered, but by the profane, and by such
as were unjustly incensed against them. Let us, there-
fore, unite ourselves to the innocent and righteous, for
they are God's elect.

" Why are there strifes, angers, divisions, schisms, and
contentions, among you ? Have you not all one God, and
one Christ? Is not one Spirit of grace poured out upon
us all, and one calling of Christ bestowed upon us all ?
Why then do we rend and tear the members of Christ,
and excite seditions in our own body? Your schism
has perverted many, has discouraged many, has staggered
many. It has caused grief to us all ; and, alas ! it con-
tinues still."

As the nature of this epistle is practical, no very regular
or precise statement of doctrine is to be expected. Still,
however, the essential doctrines of revelation are clearly
exhibited. He thus, for instance, plainly states his senti-
ments respecting redemption by the atonement of Cluist.
" Let us look steadily at the Blood of Christ, and see how
precious His Blood is in the sight of God ; for on account
of its being shed for our salvation, the grace of repentance
is provided for all mankind." In the following passage
we have the infinite condescension of Christ stated as
a ground for enforcing Christian humility. " Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the sceptre of the majesty of God, came not
in the pomp of pride and ostentation, though he could
have done so, but in humihty. You see, brethren, the
example He afforded us. If the Lord thus humbled
Himself, how should we too demean ourselves, who are
brought by Him under the yoke of His grace."

There are extant fragments of a second epistle of
Clemens, which, however, the best critics consider to be
spurious. It breaks off abruptly in the middle of the 1 2th
chapter, and there is no evidence of its having been writ-
ten to the Corinthians. Both epistles were found at the
end of the New Testament in a MS. brought from Alexan-
dria, and were published by Patrick Junms : Sancti Cle-
mentis Romani ad Corinthios Epistolae duie expressae ad

CLEMENS ROM ANUS. 109

Fidem MS. Cod. Alexandrini, Oxford, 1633 ; and again
by H. Wotton, Cambridge, 1718. An edition of all Cle-
mens' works, genuine and spurious, was published with
learned commentaries by Cotelerius, in his collection of
Patres Apostol., Paris, 167'2 : and again by Le Clerc,
Amst. 1698.

Archbishop Wake remarks that there is not any less
controversy among learned men concerning the death
of St. Clemens, than there has been about the order and
time of bis succession to his bishopric. That be lived
in expectation of martyrdom, and was ready to have
undergone it, should it have pleased God to have called
bim to it, the epistle we are now speaking of suffi-
ciently shews us. But that he did glorify God by those
particular sufferings which some have pretended, is a
matter of some doubt. For, first it must be acknowledged
that Ruffinus is one of the first authors we have that
speaks of him as a martyr. Neither Eusebius (who is
usually very exact in his observation of such things), nor
any of the fathers yet nearer his time, as Irenaeus, Cle-
mens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, &c. take any notice of it.
And for the account which some others have yet more
lately given us of the manner of his death, besides that
in some parts it is altogether fabulous, it is not improba-
ble but that, as our learned Mr. Dodwell has observed,
the first rise of it may have been owing to their confound-
ing Flavins Clemens, the Roman consul, with Clemens
Bishop of Rome ; who did indeed suffer martyrdom for
the faith about the time of which they speak, and some
other parts of whose character, such as his relation to the
Emperor and banishment into Pontus, they manifestly
ascribe to him.

However, seeing Eusebius refers his death to the third
year of Trajan, famous for the persecution of the Church,
and may thereby seem to insinuate that Clemens also then
suffered among the rest ; and that Simeon Metaphrastes
has given a long and particular account of his condem-

V<»J, IV. L

110 CLERC.

nation, to the mines first, and then of his death following
thereupon ; as I shall not determine anything against it,
so they who are desirous to know what is usually said
concerning the passion of this holy man, may abundantly
satisfy their curiosity in this particular, from the accurate
collection of Dr. Cave, in the life of this Saint, too long to
be transcribed into the present discourse. — S8. Patrum
Ajjostolicorum ojMra Genuina Cura Hicliardi Bussell,
Eusebius. Irenaus.. Tillemont. Cave. Cotelerius. Wake.
Lardner.

CLEEC, JOHN LE.

John le Cleec was born at Geneva in 1657, and early
displayed his talents, having read all the best Latin and
Greek authors in his sixteenth year, and in 1676 he
commenced his theological studies, with the lectures of
Mestrezat, Turretin, and Tronchin. In 1678 he went to
Grenoble, whence he returned in 1679 to Geneva, and
was ordained, but without attaching himself to any par-
ticular Church. He now studied the works of Curcellaeus
and Episcopius, and adopted a system of divinity so
different from that publicly received at Geneva, that he
resolved to return to Grenoble. He then went to Paris,
and thence to London, where he arrived in May 1682.
The climate of England not agreeing with him, he left it
in 1683, in company wdth Gregorio Leti, whose daughter
he afterwards married, and embarked for Holland ; and in
1684 w^as chosen professor of philosophy, belles lettres, and
Hebrew, in the Remonstrant college at Amsterdam, which
post he held as long as he lived. He wrote a vast number
of books, of very unequal merit, on all sorts of subjects.
Those which made most impression at the time concern
Biblical history and theological controversy, such as Latin
Commentaries on various Books of the Bible, 5 vols, folio,
Amsterdam, 1710 — 1731 ; Harmonia Evangelica, in Greek
and Latin, folio, 1700 ; Traduction du Nouveau Testa-

CLERC. Ill

ment, avec des Notes, 4to, 1703. These works pleased
neither the Roman Catholic nor Protestant divines, from
their having a tendency to Socinianism, a leaning which
is still more manifest in another work generally attri-
buted to him, entitled Sentimens de quelques Theologiens
de Hollande touchant I'Histoire Critique du Vieux Tes-
tament, followed by a Defence of the same work, 2 vols,
8vo, 1685. In these the author openly attacks the
inspiration of the Scriptures, and the very foundation of
Revelation. He published his Ars Critica, 3 vols, 8vo,
1712 — 1730, a work which is much esteemed; he also
edited the Bibliotheque Historique et Universelle, a
periodical begun in 1687, and closed in 1693, making
26 vols, 12mo, the first eight of which he wrote in con-
junction with De la Crose ; the Bibliotheque Choisie,
1712 — 1718, 28 vols, 12mo; and the Bibliotheque An-
cienne et Moderne, 1726 — 1730, 29 vols, 12mo. He also
wrote: 1. Parrhasiana, ou Pensees diverses sur des
Matieres de Critique, d'Histoire., de Morale, et de Poli-
tique, 2 vols, 12mo, 1701. 2. Histoire des Provinces
Unies des Pays Bas, from 1650 to 1728, 2 vols, folio,
Amsterdam, 1738, 3. Histoire du Cardinal de Richelieu^
2 vols, 12mo, 1714. 4. Traite de ITncredulite, 8vo, 1733;
a clever work, in which he examines and discusses the
various motives and reasons which occasion many to reject
Christianity. He wrote many polemical works and
pamphlets, most of which were tinged with bitterness and
dogmatism ; this is especially apparent in his controver-
sies with Simon, Cave, Bayle, and Burman. He also
published a supplement to Moreri's Dictionary, and
several editions of ancient classics ; among others, Livy,
Ausonius, Sulpicius Severus, &c. His edition of Menan-
der's and Philemon's fragments was severely criticised
by Dr. Bentley. A Life of Erasmus, extracted from his
letters, given in the Bibliotheque Choisie, has served as a
basis for Jortin's Life of that illustrious scholar. He also
edited the noble edition of the works of Erasmus, 10 vols,
folio, 1703 — 1707. In 1728, while he was giving his

112 COOCEIITS.

lecture, Le Clerc suddenly lost the use of his speech
through a paralytic stroke. His memory also failed him,
and he lingered for some years in a state. bordering upon
idiotcy. He died at Amsterdam, in 1736. — Moreri.

COBDEN, EDWARD.

Edward Cobden was educated at Trinity College, Oxford,
from whence he removed to King's College, Cambridge,
where he took his master's degree in 1713. He after-
wards returned to his former college, and took there hia
doctor's degree in 17'23. He became chaplain to Bishop
Gibson, who gave him the rectories of St. Austin and
St. Faith, London, Acton in Middlesex, a prebendary at
St. Pauls, and the Archdeaconry of London. He is cele-
brated for a sermon entitled, a Persuasion to Chastity,
which he had the virtue and boldness to preach before the
profligate court of George IL The sermon gave such
offence, that he was deprived of his place of royal chap-
lain, and was much distressed in circumstances before his
death, which happened in 1764, aged 80. He published
a volume of poems, and another of sermons. — Nichols'&
Bowyer.

COCCEIUS, JOHN.

John Cocceius was born at Bremen, in 1603, where he
received his primary education ; he then went to Ham-
burg, where he became acquainted with a learned Jew,
and perfected himself in the Oriental languages, which
he had begun to study at Bremen. Thence he went to
Frankfort where he became professor of Hebrew in 1636.
In 1649 he obtained the chair of theology at Leyden,
where he continued till his death, having formed a school
of theology which was long distinguished by his name.
He was a profound Hebrew scholar, and, as Mosheim
observes, he might have passed for a great man, had his

COCCEIUS. 113

vast erudition, his exuberant fancy, his ardent piety, and
his uncommon appUcation to the study of the Scriptures,
been under the direction of a sound and solid judgment.
This singular man introduced into theology a multitude
of new tenets and strange notions, which had never before
entered into the brain of any other mortal, or at least had
never been heard of before his time : for, in the first
place, his manner of explaining the holy Scriptures was
totally different from that of Calvin and his followers,
departing entirely from the admirable simplicity that
reigns in the commentaries of Calvin. Cocceius repre-
sented the whole history of the Old Testament as a mirror,
that held forth an accurate view of the transactions and
events that were to happen in the Church under the dis-
pensation of the New Testament, and unto the end of the
world. He even went so far as to maintain, that the
miracles, actions, and sufferings of Christ, and of His
Apostles, during the course of their ministry, were types
and images of future events. He affirmed, that by far
the greatest part of the ancient prophecies foretold
Christ's ministry and mediation, and the rise, progress,
and revolutions of the Church, not only under the figure
of persons and transactions, but in a literal manner, and
by the very sense of the words used in these predictions.
And he completed the extravagance of this chimerical
system by turning with wonderful art and dexterity, into
holy riddles and typical predictions, even those passages
of the Old Testament that seemed designed for no other
purpose than to celebrate the praises of the Deity, or to
convey some religious truth, or to inculcate some rule of
practice. In order to give an air of solidity and plausi-
bility to these odd notions, he first laid it down as a
fundamental rule of interpretation, " That the words and
phrases of Scripture are to be understood in every sense
of which they are susceptible ; or, in other words, that
they signify, in effect, every thing that they can possibly
signify ;" a rule this, which, when followed by a man who

•2l

114 COCCEITIS.

had more imagination than judgment, could not fail to
produce very extraordinary comments on the sacred wri-
tings. After having laid down this singular rule of inter-
pretation, he divided the whole history of the Church into
seven periods, conformable to the seven trumpets and seals
mentioned in the Revelations.

One of the great designs formed by Cocceius, was that
of separating theology from philosophy, and of confining
the Christian doctors, in their explications of the former,
to the words and phrases of the Holy Scriptures. Hence
it was, that, finding in the language of the sacred writers,
the Gospel dispensation represented under the image of a
covenant made between God and man, he looked upon
the use of this image as admirably adapted to exhibit a
complete and well connected system of religious truth.
But while he was labouring this point, and endeavouring
to accommodate the circumstances and characters of
human contracts to the dispensations of divine wisdom,
which they represent in such an inaccurate and imperfect
manner, he fell imprudently into some erroneous notions.
Such was his opinion concerning the covenant made be-
tween God and the Jewish nation by the ministry and the
mediation of Moses, " which he affirmed to be of the same
nature with the new covenant obtained by the mediation
of Jesus Christ." In consequence of this general prin-
ciple, he maintained, "That the Ten Commandments were
promulgated by Moses not as a rule of obedience, but as
a representation of the covenant of grace — that when the
Jews had provoked the Deity, by their various transgres-
sions, particularly by the worship of the golden calf, the
severe and servile yoke of the ceremonial law was added
to the decalogue, as a punishment inflicted on them by
the Supreme Being in his righteous displeasure — that
this yoke, which was painful in itself, became doubly so
on account of its typical signification ; since it admonished
the Israelites from day to day, of the imperfection and
uncertainty of tlieir state, filled them with anxiety, and

COCHL^US. 115

was a staniling and perpetual proof that they had merited
the displeasure of God, and could not expect, before the
coming of the Messiah, the entire remission of their trans-
gressi'jns and iniquities — that, indeed, good men, even
under the Mosaic dispensation, were immediately after
death made partakers of everlasting happim ss and glory;
but that they were, nevertheless, during the whole course of
their lives, far removed from that firm hope and assurance
of salvation, which rejoices the faithful under the dispensa-
tion of the Gospel — and that their anxiety flowed naturally
from this consideration, that their sins, though they
remained unpunished, were not pardoned, because Christ
had not, as yet, offered himself up a sacrifice to the Father
to make an entire atonement for them." These are the
principal lines that distinguish the Cocceian from other
systems of thfology ; it is attended, indeed, with other
peculiarities ; but we shall pass them over in silence, as of
little moment, and unworthy of noti'je. Tliese notions
were warmly opposed by the same i)ersons that declared
war against the Cartesian philosophy ; and the contest
was carried on for many years with various success. But,
in the issue, the doctrines of Cocceius, like those of Des
Cartes, stood their ground ; and neither the dexterity nor
vehemence of his adversaries could exclude his disciples
from the public seminaries of learning, or hinder them
from propagating, with surprising success and rapidity,
the tenets of their master in Germany and Switzerland.
Cocceius died in 1GG9. — Moreri. Musheim.

COCHL.EUS, JOHN.

John Cochl^us was born at Nuremburg in 1479, and
was the person who entered the lists most frequently by
writing or word of mouth against Luther and Lutherans.
With the exception of the fact, that from the year 1521 to
the year 1550, his fruitful pen produced annually more
than one tract in defence of Romanism, we know little of

116 COCHL^US.

his life. He was dean of Frankfort on the Maine when
he made his appearance at Worms, in 1521. He had no
summons to he present, hut was urged on by his zeal, and
was introduced to Aleander, the pope's nuncio, who was
not slow in discovering in him a devoted servant of Rome,
on whom he could calculate as on himself. Not being
able to be present at the audience which Luther was to
have with the Archbishop of Treves, Aleander appointed
Cochlseus to attend, enjoining him to hear what Luther
had to say, but to enter into no discussion with him. He
evidently doubted his discretion. Cochlaeus found it
difficult to obey, but though from time to time he had
thrown in a few words, he could not come forward as he
wished. He resolved, however, to compensate himself,
and had no sooner given an account of his mission to the
papal nuncio, than he presented himself at Luther's lodg-
ing. He accosted him as a friend, and expressed the
grief which he felt at the Emperor's resolution. After
dinner, the conversation grew animated. Cochlseus pressed
Luther to retract. He declined by a nod. Several nobles,
who were at table, had difficulty in restraining themselves.
They were indignant that the partisans of Rome should
wish not to convince the reformer by Scripture, but con-
strain him by force. Cochlasus, impatient under these
reproaches, says to Luther, " Very w^elb I offer to dispute
publicly wdth you, if you renounce the safe-conduct." All
that Luther demanded was a public debate. What ought
he to do ? To renounce the safe-conduct was to be his
ov^n destroyer ; to refuse the challenge of Cochlseus was to
appear doubtful of his cause. The guests regarded the
offer as a perfidious scheme of Aleander, whom the Dean
of Frankfort had just left. Vollrat of Watzdorff, one of
the number, freed Luther from the embarrassment of this
puzzling alternative. This baron, who was of a boiling
temperament, indignant at a snare which aimed at nothing
less than to give up Luther into the hands of the execu-
tioner, started up, seized the terrified priest, and pushed
him to the door. There would even have been bloodshed

COLE. 117

had not the other guests risen up from the table, and
interposed their mediation between the furious baron and
the trembling Cochlseus, who withdrew in confusion from
the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes.

The expression had no doubt escaped the dean in the
heat of discussion, and was not a premeditated scheme
between him and Aleander to make Luther fall into a
perfidious snare. Cochlaeus denies that it was, and we
have pleasure in giving credit to his testimony, though it
is true he had come to Luther's from a conference with
the nuncio.

His works are said to be of little worth ; the protestants
represent him to be ignorant as to his facts, and it is assert-
ed that he resorted to declamation rather than argument.
The mere titles of his writings would occupy many pages;
they may be found in the Bibliotheque de Boissard, part ii.
In 1539 he received from England a refutation by Richard
Morrison, D.D., of the tract he had published against the
marriage of Henry VIII. , to which he replied in a treatise
entitled, The Broom of John Cochlaeus for sweeping
down the Cobwebs of Morrison. He defends what he had
written against the divorce of Henry VIII., and boasts
that Erasmus had approved his work. His chief works are,
1. Historiae Hussitarum, Libri xii, folio. 2. De Actis et
Scriptis Lutherii, ab anno 1517, ad 1546, folio. 3. Spe-
culum antiquce devotionis circa Missam, 8vo. 4. De Vita
Theodorici Regis quondam Ostrogothorum, Stockholm,
1699, 4to. 5. Consilium Cardinalium anno 1538, 8vo,
6. De Emendanda Ecclesia, 1539, 8vo. He died in 155'2.
— MorerL Fraheri Theatrum. D'Auhigne.

COLE, HENET.

Heney Cole was born at Godshill, in the Isle of
Wight, and educated, we are sorry to say, at Winchester,
whence he was removed to New College, Oxford, of
which he became perpetual fellow in 1523. After study-

118 COLE.

ing the civil law, he travelled into Italy, and studied
at Padua. In 1540 he resigned his fellowship, and
settled in London, and became an advocate in the court
of arches, prebendary of Yatminster Secunda, in the
church of Sarum, and Archdeacon of Ely. In 1540 he
was made rector of Chelmsford, in Essex ; and in October
following was collated to the prebend of Holborn. In
1542 he was elected warden of New College; and in
] 545 made rector of Newton Longville, in Buckingham-
shire. Soon after, when King Edward VI. came to
the crown. Dr. Cole adhered to the party of the reformers,
but altering his mind, he resigned his preferments.
After Queen Mary's accession he became again a zealous
Roman Catholic, and in 1554 was made provost of Eton
College, in the room of Sir Thomas Smith. He was also
one of the disputants against Archbishop Cranmer, who
was sent down by the lower house of convocation to
Oxford; and when the death of Cranmer was resolved
upon. Cole received instructions privately from the Queen
to preach at his burning. On arriving at Oxford, Cole
visited the Archbishop, but did not mention what awaited
him on the morrow. He asked, " Have you continued in
the Catholic faith, wherein I left you?" Cranmer an-
swered ; " By God's grace, I shall be daily more confirmed
in the Catholic faith ;" an evasive reply, such, indeed, as
might have been expected from the Archbishop under his
existing circumstances, but certainly not sufficiently ex-
plicit for the satisfaction of his interrogator. On the
following morning, it being Saturday, the 21st of March,
Cole visited the prisoner again, and enquired of him
whether he had any money ? A negative answer being
returned, fifteen crowns were given to him. The provost
also exhorted him to constancy in the faith, and he, pro-
bably, acquainted him that a public profession of his
opinions was about to be required from his lips. When,
the next day the unhappy Archbishop was brought to
St. Mary's church. Cole began his sermon, he assigned
several reasons why, in the present instance, a heretic

COLE. 119

■who had repented, should, notwithstanding, expiate his
offence at the stake. "The prisoner, he said, was the chief
cause of recent alterations in rehgion ; he had irregularly
divorced King Henry from Queen Catharine, not however
of malice undoubtedly, but under the advice of various
learned men ; he had written, disputed, and, in fine,
exerted himself in every way to favour heresy, and, " had
continued in it even to the last hour." No heretic, the
preacher asserted, having so long maintained his 'errors,
had ever been pardoned in England, unless in the time of
the schism. It was besides, the congregation was told,
necessary to use severity in this case, for the sake of
example; and it was added, "there are other reasons
which have moved the Queen and council to order the
execution of the individual present, but which are not
meet and convenient for every man's understanding."
After some practical reflections addressed to the hearers,
and bearing upon the case before them, the preacher
exhorted Cranmer himself. He pressed upon his atten-
tion several texts of Scripture suitable for inspiring him
with patience under his approaching death ; he cited the
case of the penitent thief in the Gospel, as an encourage-
ment to him in believing that he should that day be with
Christ in Paradise : he reminded him that the three
faithful Jews, consigned to the fiery furnace by Nebuchad-
nezzar, suffered not by the fury of the flames ; he then
made a shew of strengthening this consolation by relating,
from legendary lore, the patience of St. Andrew upon the
cross, and of St. Laurence upon the gridiron. Finally,
he glorified God in his conversion, assuring the people
that great pains had long been taken ineffectually for that
purpose, and that there appeared no hopes of success,
until at last a merciful Diety reclaimed the sinner. Many
flattering observations were then applied to Cranmer, the
severity with which his acts had been described in a former
portion of the sermon was greatly softened down, and he
was assured that, after his death, masses and dirges should
be chanted for the repose of his soul. An address was

UO COLE.

even directly made to the priests present, charging them
thus to assist, during its detention in purgatory, the spirit
now about to leave the world.

The sermon being concluded, Cole intreated his hearers
to pray for the prisoner. Immediately the whole congre-
gation obeyed the call, and never did a large assembly
exhibit more evident marks of earnest devotion. Some
individuals. ^probably, supplicated the Father of mercies
from a generous compassion for the sufferer before them ;
but party-feelings lent fervency to the prayers of the con-
gregation generally. The Romanist and Reformer equally
claimed the victim as his own ; both, accordingly, felt
deeply interested in the mitigation of his sufferings, and
each of them clung to the hope that he would leave the
world with a full avowal of adherence to his own peculiar
creed.

The reader is referred to the liife of Cranmer for the
sequel of this tragedy. Dr. Cole was prominent in all the
proceedings of the Romanists in those dreadful times, and
when he acted as one of the visitors of the University of
Cambridge, Whitgift seems to have regarded his appoint-
ment with fear. He became dean of St. Paul's in the
December of 1556, and was made, August 8, 1557, vicar-
general of the spiritualities under Cardinal Pole, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury ; and the first of October following,
official of the arches, and dean of the peculiars ; and in
November ensuing, judge of the court of audience, which
office the following year he resigned. In 1558 he was
appointed one of the overseers of that cardinal's will. In
the first year of Queen Elizabeth's reign he was one of
the eight divines of the Church of England appointed to
dispute publicly on the Romanizing side against eight
others appointed to maintain the cause of the Reformation.
Of this disputation Strype informs us that the Queen
ordered it should be m.anaged in writing on both parties,
for avoiding of much altercation in words and she ordered
likewise, that the papists' bishops should first declare their
minds, with their reasons, in writing; and then the others,

COLE. 121

if they had any thing to say to the contrary, should the
same day declare their opinions. And so each of them
should deliver their writings to the other, to be considered
what were to be disproved therein ; and the same to declare
in writing at some other convenient day.

All this was fully agreed upon. And hereupon divers
of the nobility and estates of the realm, understanding
that such a meeting should be, made earnest means to
her majesty, that the bishops and divines might put their
assertions into English, and read them in that tongue,
for their better satisfaction and understanding, and for
enabling their own judgments to treat and conclude of
such laws as might depend thereupon. And so both
parties met at Westminster Abbey : the lords and others of
the privy council were present, and a great part of the
nobility and of the commons. But while all were in ex-
pectation to hear these learned men and their arguments,
the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. White, said, they were mis-
taken, that their assertions and reasons should be written,
and so only recited out of a book : adding, that their book
was not then ready written ; but that they were ready to
argue and dispute : and therefore that they would only at
that time repeat in speech what they had to say to the
first proposition. This, with some words, was passed off:
and then the Bishop of Winchester and his colleagues
appointed Dr. Cole, dean of St. Paul's, to be the utterer of
their minds : who, partly by speech, and partly by reading
authorities written, and at certain times being informed
by the colleagues what to say, made a declaration of their
meanings, and their reasons to their first proposition.

Which being ended, they were asked by the privy
council if any of them had any more to say. They said,
No. Then the other part was licensed to shew their
minds, which they did according to the first order; exhi-
biting all that they meant to propound in a book written :
which, after a prayer and invocation made to Almighty
God, and a protestation to stand to the doctrine of the

VOL. IV. M

1-22 COLE.

catholic Church built upon Scripture, was distinctly read
by Dr. Horn (who was the penner of the same) upon the
first proposition. And so the assembly was quietly dis-
missed. This was on Friday, the last day of March. The
question then disputed was, " That it was against the
word of God, and the custom of the primitive Church, to
use a tongue unknown to the people in common prayer
and administration of Sacraments."

When Monday, the second day of conference, came,
and all the grave assembly were set. White, Bishop of
Winchester, and the rest of that side, refused to proceed
on the second question, but would by all means insist
still upon the first, argued the last day ; and, pretending
they had more to say of it, were resolved to read upon
that argument only : urging much that they and their
cause should suffer prejudice if they should not treat of
the first. And Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, striving to
have his turn of speaking, hotly said, that they were not
used indifferently, that they might not be allowed to de-
clare in writing what they had to say of the first question;
and added, that what Dr. Cole spake in the last assembly
was extempore, and of himself, and with no fore-studied
talk, and that it was not prepared to strengthen their
cause. These sayings made the nobility and others the
auditors frown, knowing that Cole spake out of a paper
which he held in his hand, and read in the same : and
that according to the instructions of the bishops, who
pointed unto several places in his paper with their fin-
gers for his direction. Watson also complained that their
adversaries had longer warning than they : and that they
themselves had notice of it but two days before, and were
fain to sit up the whole last night. But Bacon, the Lord
Keeper, told them that at the last conference, when Cole
had done, he asked them, the Bishops, whether what he
had spoken was what they would have him say, and they
granted it ; and whether he should say any more in the
matter, and they answered, No. But for their satisfaction

COLE. 123

the Lord Keeper added, that they should at present,
according to the order agreed upon, discourse upon the
second question ; and at another meeting, when the day
came for them both to confirm their first question, they
should have liberty to read what they had further to say
upon the first. To which all the council there present
willingly condescended : but this also the Bishops would
not be contented with. At last Hethe, Archbishop of
York, told them they were to blame, for that there was a
plain decreed order for them to treat at this time of the
second question, and bade them leave their contention.
Then the Bishops started another matter of quarrel, and
said, it was contrary to the order in disputations that they
should begin ; for that their side had the negative said
the Bishop of Chester : and therefore they that were on
the afiirmative should begin : that they were the defending
party : and that it was the school manner, and likewise
the manner in Westminster Hall, that the plaintiff should
speak first, and then the accused party answer. To which
the keeper told them, they began willingly on the first
question ; and the protestants told them, that they had
the negative then. Horn wondered that they should so
much stand upon it, who should begin. Then the
Bishops charged the protestants to have been the pro-
pounders of the questions. But the keeper told them
that the questions were of neither of their propounding,
but offered from the council indifferently to them both.
Then Bayne, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, minding
to run from the matter, began to question with the pro-
testants, what church they were of ? saying that they
must needs try that first : for there were many churches
in Germany ; and he demanded of Horn, which of those
churches he was of? who prudently answered, that he was
of Christ's catholic Church. The keeper told them they
ought not to run into voluntary talk of their own invent-
ing. The Bishop of Lichfield said that they, on their
part, had no doubt, but assuredly stood in the truth.
But those other men pretended to be doubtful. There-

VU COLE.

fore they should first bring what they had to impugn
them, the Bishops, withal. And the Bishop of Chester
told the Lords plainly, if themselves began first, and the
others spake after, then they speaking last should have
the advantage to come off with applause of the people,
and the verity on their side not be so well marked. And
therein indeed he spake out the true cause of all this
jangling. And hereupon Winchester in short said he
was resolved, except they began, he would say nothing.
When the Lord Keeper could not persuade them he spoke
of departing. And Winchester, as though this was the
issue he desired, presently cried. Contented, and offered to
go. But the keeper first asked them man by man, to
know their resolution, and they all, save one, Fecknam,
Abbot of Westminster, utterly denied to read, without the
other party began ; and some so very disorderly and
irreverently as had not been seen in so honourable an
assembly of the two estates of the realm, nobility and com-
mons then assembled, besides the presence of the Queen's
council.

And so, without any more dispute, all was dismissed.
But the Lord Keeper at parting said these words to them ;
" For that ye would not that we should hear you, perhaps
you may shortly hear of us." And so they did; for, for
this contempt, the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln
were committed to the Tower of London ; and the rest,
including Cole, and with the exception of the Abbot of
Westminster, were bound to make their personal appear-
ance before the council, and not to depart the cities of
London and Westminster till their order.

They were thus bound over until the Lords of the
Council assessed them for the contempt committed against
the Queen's majesty, as the obligation ran. Dr. Cole was
fined in 1000 marks, though only 500 were levied upon
him. It seems that he might have received the same
gentle treatment which the otlier deprived dignitaries met
with, had he not been of a restless and controversial tern-
per, being, as Strype says, " more earnest than wise."

COLE. U6

He remained at liberty till May, 1560, when with some
others he was sent to the Tower. How long he remained
there we do not know, but in March, 1560, after the
memorable challenge of Bishop Jewell, "that if any one of
the leading articles of Romanism which he then rehearsed
could be proved on the popish side by any sufficient
authority, either of the Scripture, or of the old doctors, or
of the ancient councils, or by any one allowed example of
the primitive Church, and as they had borne the people
in hand they could prove them by, he would be contented
to yield to them, and to subscribe."

He wrote a letter to him, offering to dispute with him
by letter. Some letters passed between him and Jewell,
in which, as Strype says, "it is evident how Cole shuffled
and shifted off the main business, and nibbled at other
bye matters. " But at length he privately, among his
own party, scattered several copies of an answer, as he
called it by way of letter to Jewell, to which Jewell printed
a reply.

In the month of June the same year he was summoned
before the Queen's visitors at Lambeth. They demanded
of him, whether that letter, that went abroad under his
name, in answer to Jewell elect of Sarum, was his, and
whether he would acknowledge it so, or no : and the
rather, because it had gone abroad in all places, even to
the Bishops own diocese, to discredit him in corners at
his first coming. Cole answered, that it was his own :
but that it was much abridged, and that the original was
twice as much. Hereupon the Bishop blamed him after-
wards, in his letter to him, " that he would so unad-
visedly bestow his writings to others that had curtailed
them ; and because many honourable and w^orshipful
persons would gladly see what both said in print." The
Bishop therefore had desired him, for the bettering of
his own cause, to send hiin his own copy fully and
largely, as he said he gave it out at the first ; that he
might have no cause to think himself injured, if he an-

m2

126 COLET.

swered one parcel of his letter, and not the whole. This
the Bishop wrote to him from Shirborn, July 22, 1560.
Cole never sent his copy, nor made answer one way or
other ; and so the Bishop was fain to answer that paper
that went about.

The visitors at Lambeth, mentioned above, called there
before them, besides Cole, many other popish divines, to
swear to the supremacy : who refusing it, they took of them
bonds for their good behaviour.

Cole died in London, 1579. His writings were, 1. Dis-
putation with Archbishop Cranmer and Bishoj) Pddley at
Oxford, in 1554. 2. Funeral Sermon at the Burning of
Dr. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Both
these are in Fox's Acts and Monuments. 3. Letters to
John Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury, upon occasion of a
sermon that the said Bishop preached before the Queen's
majesty and her honourable council, anno 1560, London,
i560, 8vo; printed afterwards among Bishop Jewell's
works. 4. Letters to Bishop Jewell, upon occasion of a
sermon of his preached at St. Paul's Cross on the second
Sunday before Easter, in 1650. 5. An Answer to the
first Proposition of the Protestants, at the Disputation
before the Lords at Westminster. — Strype. Burnet. Fox.
Dod.

COLET, JOHN.

John Colet was born in the parish of St. Antholin,
London, in the year 1466, and was the eldest son of
Sir Henry Colet, knt. twice Lord Mayor, who had, besides
him, one and twenty children. In the year 1483, he was
sent to Magdalene College, in Oxford, where he spent
seven years in the study of logic and philosophy, and took
his degrees in arts. He was perfectly acquainted with
Cicero's works, and no stranger to Plato and Plotinus,
whom he read together, to the end that they might illus-
trate each other's meaning. He studied also Dionysius

COLET. 12T

and Origen. He was forced however to read these authors
only in their Latin translations ; for at school he had no
opportunity of learning the Greek tongue, nor at the
university, when he went thither ; that language being
then not only not taught, but thought unnecessary and
even discouraged, in that seat of learning. Hence the
proverb, Cave a Grsecis, ne fias Hasreticus, that is, " Be-
ware of Greek, lest you become an heretic;" and it is well
known, that when Linacer, Grocin, and others, afterwards
professed to teach the Greek language in Oxford, they
were opposed by a set of men who called themselves Tro-
jans. Colet was also skilled extremely well in mathe-
matics ; so that having thus laid a good foundation of
learning at home, he went and travelled abroad, for farther
improvement ; first to France, and then to Italy ; and
seems to have continued in those two countries from the
year 1403 to 1497. But before his departure, and indeed
when he vras but two years standing in the university, he
was instituted to the rectory of Denington, in Suffolk, to
which he was presented by a relation of his mother, and
which he held to the day of his death.

Being arrived at Paris, he soon became acquainted with
the learned there, with the celebrated Budaeus in parti-
cular ; and was afterwards recommended to Erasmus. In
Italy, he contracted a friendship with several eminent
persons, especially with his ov.n countrymen Grocin,
Linacer, Lilly, and Latimer; who were learning the
Greek tongue, then but little known in England, under
those great masters Demetrius, Angelus Politianus, Her-
molus Barborus, and Pomponius Sabinus. He took this
opportunity of improving himself in this language ;
and having devoted himself to divinity, he read, while
abroad, the best of the ancient fathers, particularly
Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Jerome. He looked some-
times also into Scotus and Aquinas, studied the civil and
canon law, made himself acquainted with the history and
constitution of Church and State ; and for the sake of
giving a polish to all this, did not neglect to read the

128 COLET.

English poets, and other authors of the belles lettres.
During his absence trom England he was made a pre-
bendary in the church of York, and installed by proxy
upon the 5th of March, 1493 — 4. Upon his return in
the year 1496, or 1497, he was ordained deacon in
December, and priest in July following. He had, indeed,
before he entered into orders, great temptations from his
natural disposition, to lay aside study, and give himself
up to gaiety ; for he was rather luxuriously inclined ;
but he curbed his passions, and after staying a few
months with his father and mother at London he retired
to Oxford.

Here he read public lectures on St. Paul's Epistles
without stipend or reward : which being a new thing, drew
a vast crowd of hearers, who admired him gi-eatly. And
here began his memorable friendship with Erasmus, who
came to Oxford about the end of the year 1497, which
remained unshaken and inviolable to the day of their
deaths. He continued these lectures through the years
1497, 1498, 1499; and, in the year 1501, was admitted
to proceed in divinity, or to the reading of the sen-
tences. In the year 1504 he commenced doctor in
divinity : and in May, 1505, was instituted to a prebend
in St. Paul's, London The same year and month he was
made dean of that church, without the least application of
his own.

The following account of him in his private character
is given by Erasmus : —

"The dean's table," says he, " which, under the name
of hospitality, had before served too much to pomp and
luxury, he contracted to a more frugal and temperate way
of entertaining. And it having been his custom for many
years to eat but one meal, that of dinner, he had always
the evening to himself. When he dined privately with
his own family he had always some strangers for his
guests ; but the fewer, because his provision was frugal ;
which yet was neat and genteel. The sittings were short ;
and the discourses such as pleased only the learned and

COLET. 129

the good. As soon as grace before meat was said, some
boy with a good voice read distinctly a chapter out of one
of St. Paul's Epistles, or out of the Proverbs of Solomon.
When he had done reading, the dean would pitch upon
some particular part of it, and thence frame a subject
matter of discourse ; asking either the learned, or such as
were otherwise of good understanding, what was the
meaning of this or that expression : and he would so adapt
and temper his discourse, that though it was grave and
serious, yet it never tired, or gave any distaste. Again,
toward the end of dinner, when the company was rather
satisfied than satiated, he would throw in another subject
of discourse : and thus he dismissed his guests with a
double repast, refreshed in their minds as well as bodies ;
so that they always went away better than they came, and
were not oppressed with what they had eat and drunk.
He was mightily delighted with the conversation of his
friends ; which he would some times protract till very late
in the evening : but all his discourse was either of learn-
ing or religion. If he could not get an agreeable com-
panion, (for it was not every body he did like,) one of his
servants read some part of the Holy Scriptures to him.
In his journeys he would sometimes make me (says
Erasmus) his companion ; and he was as easy and plea-
sant as any man living : yet he always carried a book
with him ; and all his discourse was seasoned with reli-
gion. He was so impatient of whatsoever was foul and
sordid, that he could not bear with any indecent or im-
I)roper way of speaking. He loved to be neat and clean
in his goods, furniture, entertainment, apparel, and books,
and whatever belonged to him ; and yet he despised all
state and magniiicence. His habit was only black; though
it was then common for the higher clergy to be clad in
purple. His upper garment was always of woollen cloth,
and plain ; which, if the weather was cold, and required it,
he lined with fur. Whatever came in by his ecclesiastical
preferments he delivered to his stewai'd, to be laid out on
family occasions or hospitality : and all that arose from

130 COLET.

his own proper estate, (which was very large,) he gave away
for pious and charitable uses."

Erasmus also informs us of his public character, that
*' this excellent man, as if he had been called to the
labours, not to the dignity of his office, restored the
decayed discipline of his cathedral church, and brought in
what was a new practice there, preaching himself upon
Sundays and all solemn festivals. In which course of
preaching, he did not take a desultory text out of the Gos-
pel or Epistle for the day ; but he chose a fixed and larger
subject, which he prosecuted in several successive dis-
courses, till he had gone through the whole ; as suppose
the Gospel of St. Matthew, the Creed, or the Lord's Prayer.
And he had there always a full auditory ; and amongst
others, the chief magistrates of the city."

The frequent preaching of Dean Colet, in his own cathe-
dral, set a good example to some other deans, to do the
same good office in their respective churches : as particu-
larly at Lichfield, Dr. Collingwood introduced the pious
practice of preaching every Sunday : being the first and
only preacher of all the deans there.

We hear much in these days of the reverence shewn by
the people before the Reformation, but the following quota-
tion from an English book, printed at the latter end of
Henry Vllth's reign will shew how profane and dissolute
were the choir of St. Pauls at that period, and how much
they needed reformation.

" Certeyne of vycars of Poules dysposed to be merye on
a Sondaye at hye masse tyme, sent another madde felowe
of theyr acquayntance unto a folyshe dronken preest upon
the toppe of the stayres by the chauncell dore, and spake
to hym, and sayd thus, Syr, my maistre hath sent you a
bottell to putt your drynke in, because ye can kepe none
in your brayne. Thys preest beynge therewith very angrye,
all sodenly toke the bottell, and with his fote flange it
down into the bodye of the churche upon the gentylmennes
heddes."

Dean Colet was much disgusted with the state of mon-

COLET. 131

asteiies and the immoralities of the monks. He saw also
the monstrous evils which result from the constrained
celibacy of the clergy. He used to say he never found
better or purer manners than among married men, whose
natural affection for their wives and care of their own
children and go^rnment of their own families, kept them
within the bounds of moderation and chastity. Erasmus
often referred to the wisdom of Dean Colet, when at a
later period of life he founded his school, in preferring a
married man for the master, and married men for the
trustees and guardians of it. The constrained celibacy of
the clergy had not only caused crimes and scandals of the
most gross nature, but had actually lowered the tone of
morals in religious men. Sir Thomas More (Apologia
pro Erasmo) narrates that he heard a divine of his ac-
quaintance maintain plus eum peccare qui unam domi
concubinam quam qui decem foras meretrices haberet.
And although Erasmus bears testimony to the purity of
Colet's life, a fact which he speaks of as an exception to
the general rule of the clergy ; yet he says he had a chari-
table opinion of those priests and monks who were guilty
of incontinence. " Not that he did not heartily abhor the
sin, but because he found such men far less mischievous
than others (if compared) who were haughty, envious,
backbiters, hypocrites, vain, unlearned, wholly given to
the getting of money and honour. Yet these had a
mighty opinion of themselves ; whereas others, by acknow-
ledging their infirmity, were made more humble and
modest. He said, that to be covetous and proud was
more abominable in a priest than to have an hundred
concubines : not that he thought incontinence to be a light
sin, but covetousness and pride to be at a greater distance
from true piety. And he was not more averse to any sort
of men, than such bishops who were wolves instead of
shepherds ; and commended themselves by external ser-
vice of God, ceremonies, benedictions and indulgences to
the people, while with all their hearts they served the
world, that is, glory and gain. He was not much dis-

i:3'2 COLET;

pleased with them who would not have images (either
painted or carved, gold or silver) worshipped in churches ;
nor with them, who doubted whether a notorious wicked
priest could consecrate the Sacrament. Hereby not fa-
vouriDg their error, but expressing his indignation against
such clergymen, who by an open bad life gave occasion to
this suspicion."

His conduct exposed him to persecution from the
Bishop of London, Dr. Fitzjames, who accused him to
Archbishop Warham as a dangerous man, preferring at
the same time some articles against him. But Warham,
knowing the worth aijd integrity of Colet, dismissed him,
without giviug him the trouble of putting in any formal
answer. The Bishop, however, endeavoured afterwards to
stir up the King and the court against him.

Whatever his persecutions were, they did not prevent
his making a noble stand against the existing abuses of
the Church, and from calling for a reformation of the
establishment, as may be seen from his sermon before the
convocation at St. Paul's, in 1511. In that sermon,
referring to the sins of the world, of which the pride of
life is one, he says, " How much greediness and appetite
of honour and dignity is seen now-a-days in clergymen ?
How run they (yea almost out of breath) from one benefice
to another, from the less to the greater, from the lower to
the higher? Who seeth not this? And who seeing,
sorroweth not? And most of those who are in these
dignities carry their heads so high, and are so stately,
that they seem not to be JDut in the humble bishopric of
Christ, but rather in the high lordship and power of the
world ; not knowing, or not minding, what Christ the
master of all meekness said unto His disciples (whom He
called to be bishops and priests :) The princes of the
Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and those that be
in authority have power; but do ye not so. Whosoever will
be chief amongst you (highest in dignity) let him be your
servant. The Son of Man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister. Mat. xx. 25, &c. By which words

COLET. 133

our Saviour doth plainly teach, that a prelacy in the
church is nothing else but a ministration, that an high
dignity in an ecclesiastical person ought to be nothing but
a meek service.

" The second secular evil is carnal concupiscence. And
hath not this vice grown and increased in the Church so
far, that in this most busy age, the far greater number
of priests mind nothing but what doth delight and please
their senses ? They give themselves to feasts and ban-
queting, spend their time in vain babbling, are addicted
to hunting and hawking ; and in a word, drowned in the
delights of this world, diligent only in progging for those
lusts they set by. Against which sort of men St. Jude
exclaims in his epistle, saying, Wo unto them that have
gone the way of Cain ; they are foul and beastly,. feasting
in their meats, without fear feeding themselves, clouds of
the wild sea, foaming out their own shame ; unto whom
the storm of darkness is reserved for everlasting.

" Covetousness is the third secular evil, which St. John
calls the lust of the eyes, and St. Paul, idolatry. This
abominable pestilence hath so entered into the minds of
almost all priests, hath so blinded the eyes of their under-
standing, that we see nothing but that which seems to
bring unto us some gain. What other thing seek we
now-a-days in the church, except fat benefices and high
promotions ? And it were well if we minded the duty of
those when we have them ; but he that hath many great
benefices, minds not the office of one small one. And in
these high promotions, what other thing do we pass upon,
but only our tithes and rents ? We care not how vast
our charge of souls be, how many or how great benefices
we take, so they be of large value."

In suggesting modes of reformation, he recommends
especially the putting in force of existing canons : "Above
all things," he says, "let the canons be rehearsed that
appertain to you my reverend fathers and lord bishops,
laws concerning your just and canonical election in the
chapters of your churches, calling upon the Holy Ghost :

VOL IV. N

134 COLET.

for because those canons are not obeyed now-a-days (but
prelates are chosen oftentimes more by the favour of
men, than by the grace of God) hence truly it comes to
pass, that we have not seldom bishops who have little
spirituality in them, men rather worldly than heavenly,
favouring more of the spirit of this world than the spirit
of Christ.

" Let the canons be rehearsed of the residence of bishops
in their dioceses, which command that they look diligently
to the health of souls, that they sow the word of God, that
they shew themselves in their churches, at least on great
holidays ; that they officiate in their own persons, and
do sacrifice for their people ; that they hear the causes and
matters of poor men ; that they sustain fatherless children
and widows, and exercise themselves in works of virtue.

" Let the canons be rehearsed concerning the right be-
stowing of the patrimony of Christ; the canons which
command that the goods of the church be spent not in
costly building, not in sumptuous apparel and pomps, not
in feasting and banqueting, not in excess and wantonness,
not in enriching of kinsfolk, not in keeping of hounds ;
but in things profitable and necessary for the Church."

The persecutions he endured made him weary of the
world, and he began to think of disposing of his effects,
and of retiring. Having, therefore, a large estate, without
any near relations, he resolved, in the midst of life and
health, to consecrate all his property to some permanent
benefaction. And this he performed by founding St. Pauls
School, in London, of which he appointed William Lilly
first master, in 1512. He ordained that there should be
in this school a high master, a surmaster, and a chaplain,
who should teach gratis 153 children, divided into eight
classes ; and he endowed it with lands and houses, amount-
ing then to £122. 4s. 7^d. per annum, of which endow-
ment he made the Company of Mercers trustees.

" The whole fabric," says Erasmus, "he divided into
four parts : whereof one fat the entrance) is as it were for
the catechumeni, (and yet none is admitted till he can

COLET. 135

read and write) the second for such as are under the usher.
The third part is for those whom the upper master teach-
eth. These two ends are divided by a curtain, which is
drawn to and fro when they please. Above the master's
chair stands the holy child Jesus, curiously engraven, in
the posture of one reading a lecture, with this motto,
Hear Him ; which words I advised him to set up. And
all the young fry, when they come in and go out of school
(besides their appointed prayers) salute Christ with an
hymn. At the upper end is a chapel, in which divine
service may be said. The whole building hath no corners
nor lurking-holes for dunces, having neither chamber nor
dining-room in it. Every boy has his proper seat dis-
tinguished by spaces of wood, and the forms have thi-ee
ascents. Every class containeth sixteen boys, (the two
lowest much more,) and the best scholar of each sits in
a seat somewhat more eminent than the rest, with the
word CAPITANEUS engraven in golden letters over
his head.

" Our quick-sighted Dr. Colet saw very well, that the
main hope and pillar of a commonwealth consists in fur-
nishing youth with good literature, and thcjrefore did ho
bestow so much care and cost on this school. Though it
stood him in an infinite sum of money to build and endow
it, yet he would accept of no co-partner. One left indeed
a legacy of £100 sterling to the structure of it; but Colet
thinking that if he took it, some lay-people would chal-
lenge to themselves I know not what authority over the
school, did by the permission of his Bishop bestow it
upon holy vestments for the choir. Yet though he would
sufifer no lay-men to have a finger in the building, he
enti-usted no clergyman (not so much as the Bishop,
Dean, and Chapter of St. Paul) nor any of the nobility,
with the oversight of the revenues ; but some married
citizens of honest report. When he was asked why he
would do so, he answered, that there was nothing certain
in human affairs ; but he found least corruption in such
men.

186 COLET.

As all men highly commended him for his school, so many
wondered why he would build a stately house for himself
within the bounds of the Carthusian monastery, which is
not far from the palace at Pdchmond : but he told them,
that he provided that seat for himself in his old age, when
he should be unfit for labours, or broken with diseases,
and so constrained to retire from the society of men.
There he intended to philosophize with two or three
eminent friends, among which he was wont, says Erasmus,
to reckon me ; but death prevented him. For being a few
years before his decease, visited thrice with the sweating
sickness, (a disease which seized no countrymen but
English] though he recovered, yet he thereupon grew
consumptive, and so died. One physician thought that
the dropsy killed him ; but when he was dissected, they
saw nothing extraordinary, only the capillary vessels of
his liver were beset with pustules. He was buried in the
south side of the choir, of his own cathedral, in a low
sepulchre, which he to that end had chosen for himself
some years before, with this inscription, John Colet.

Besides his dignities and preferments already men-
tioned, he was rector of the fraternity or guild of Jesus in
St. Paul's cathedral, for which he procured new statutes
and was chaplain and preacher in ordinary to Henry VIII. ;
and, if Erasmus be correct, one of the privy-council.
He wrote, — 1. Oratio habita a Doctore Johanne Colet,
Decano Sancti Pauli, ad Clerum in Convocatioue, anno
1511. 2. Eudimenta Grammatices a Joanne Coleto,
Decano Ecclesias Sancti Pauli Londin. in Usum Scholae
ab ipso Institutes, commonly called Paul's Accidence,
1539, 8vo. 3. The construction of the Eight Parts of
Speech, entitled Absolutissimus de Octo Orationis Partium
Constructione Libellus ; which, with some alterations,
and great additions, makes up the syntax in Lilly's Gram-
mar, Antwerp, 1530, 8vo. 4. Daily Devotions or the
Christian's Morning and Evening Sacrifice. 5. Monition
to a godly Life, 1534, 1563, &c. 6. Epistolae ad Eras-
mum — Erasmus. Knight.

COLLIER. 137

COLLIEE, JEREMY.

Jeremy Collier was born at Stow Qui, in Cambridge-
shire, in 1650. He was educated under his father who
was master of the free-school at Ipswich, whence, in 1GG9,
he was sent to Cambridge, and admitted a poor scholar
of Caius College. In 1676 he was ordained deacon by
Gunning, Bishop of Ely; and priest the year after, by
Compton, Bishop of London. He officiated for some time
at the Countess-dowager of Dorset's, at Knowle, in Kent,
whence, in 1679, he removed to the rectory of Ampton,
near St. Edmunds Bury, in Suffolk ; but resigned it, and
came to London in 1685, and was appointed lecturer of
Gray's-Inn, but when the Revolution took place, he not
only refused to take the oaths to the new government, but
engaged as a zealous and active partisan, in support of the
pretensions of the dethroned Monarch, and in defence of
the conduct of his non-juring brethren. The first treatise
he produced was. The Desertion discussed, in a Letter to
a Country Gentleman, 1688, designed to counteract the
influence of a pamphlet of Dr. Gilbert Burnet, the object
of which was to show, that James 11. by his desertion of
his people, particularly after the series of injustice aud
violence by which his reign had been distinguished, ought
no longer to be considered or treated with as King. For
this Collier was confined for some months in Newgate ;
whence he was afterwards liberated without being brought
to a trial. He then published a Translation of the Ninth,
Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Books of Sleidan s Commen-
taries, 4to, 1689; Vindiciee Juris Regii, or remarks upon
a Paper entitled An Enquiry into the Measures of Sub-
mission to the Supreme Authority, in 4to, in the same
year; Animadversions upon the modem Explanation of
2 Henry VII. cap. 1. or a King de facto, in the same
year ; A Caution against Inconsistency, or the Connexion
between Praying and Swearing, in relation to the Civil
Powers, 4to, 1690; A Dialogue concerning the Times,

VOL. IV. 0

138 COLLIER.

between Philobelgus and Sempronius, in the same year ;
a petition, on a half sheet, To the Right Honourable the
Lords, and to the Gentlemen convened at Westminster,
in the same year, for an Enquiry into the birth of the
Prince of Wales ; Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance con-
sidered, with some Remarks upon his Vindication, in
1691 ; and a Brief Essay concerning the Independency
of Church Power, in 1692. By these publications, and
by a suspicion that a journey undertaken by the writer to
the coast of Kent, in 169*2, was with the design of main-
taining a correspondence with the exiled King, the
jealousy of the government w^as once more alarmed, and
he was brought in the custody of messengers to London,
where, after an examination before the Earl of Notting-
ham, he was committed prisioner to the Gate-house, but
was in a short time admitted to bail.

Collier's conscience, however, reproached him, and he
feared lest remaining in bail he should acknowledge the
jurisdiction of the court in which the bail was taken, and
consequently of the power from whence the authority of
the court was derived, and therefore surrendered in dis-
charge of his bail before Chief Justice Holt, and was com-
mitted to the King's Bench prison. He was released again
at the iatercession of friends, in a very few days ; but still
attempted to support his principles and justify his con-
duct by the following pieces, of which, it is said, there
were only five copies printed : " The case of giving bail
to a pretended authority examined, dated from the King's
Bench, Nov. 23, 1692," with a preface, dated Dec. 1692;
and, " a Letter to Sir John Holt," dated Nov. 30, 1692 ;
and also, " A Reply to some Remarks upon the case of
giving bail, &c., dated April, 1693." He wrote soon after
this, " A Persuasive to consideration, tendered to the
RoyaUsts, particularly those of the Church of England,"
1693, 4to. It was afterwards reprinted in 8vo, together
with his vindication of it, against a piece entitled " The
Layman's Apology." He wrote also, " Remarks upon the

COLLIER. 139

London Gazette, relating to the Streight's Fleet, and the
Battle of Landen in Flanders," 1693, 4to.

We come now to an incident in the life of Collier by
which he was involved in much trouble, we allude to his
absolution of Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins,
who were sentenced to death in 1096, for being implicated
in a plot against the life of William III. The account of
this proceeding is thus given by Collier himself. After
his trial, Sir William Perkins, whom he had not seen for
four or five years, sent for Collier, who visited him in
Newgate. After two days he was not permitted to see the
prisoner alone : and at length he was refused altogether,
so that he did not see him from Wednesday, April 1,
until Friday, at the place of execution. Sir William had
spoken freely to Collier on the state of his mind, and
desired that the absolution of the Church might be pro-
nounced the last day. On Friday Collier was refused
admittance to the prison : and therefore he went to the
place of execution and gave the absolution there, since he
was not allowed to give it elsewhere, using the Form in
The Office for The Visitation of the Sick.

So great an impression was made upon the public mind
by the circumstance, that the two Archbishops and ten
Bishops published a declaration against the practice :
entitled : " A Declaration of the Sense of the Archbishops
and Bishops now in and about London upon the occasion
of their attendance in parliament, concerning the irregular
and scandalous proceedings of certain clergymen, at the
execution of Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins."
The document is somewhat curious, as expressive of the
opinions of the Bishops respecting the schism, which had
now occurred, A paper, or papers, had been delivered by
the criminals to the sheriffs, which were afterwards printed
and circulated, and in which Sir John Friend speaks of
the Church of the nonjurors as the Church of England.
The Bishops say, that they felt themselves obliged to
express their sense of the conduct of the three clergymen.
Alluding to Sir John Friend s expression, they remark of

140 COLLIER.

the Church of England, " that venerable name is, by the
author of that paper, appropriated to that part of our
Church which hath separated itself from the body ; and
more particularly to a faction of them, who are so furiously
bent upon the restoring of the late King, that they seem
not to regard by what means it is to be effected." His
words are as follows :

" I profess myself, and I thank God I am so, a member
of the Church of England, though, God knows, a most
unworthy and unprofitable part of it, of that Church which
suffers so much at present, for a strict adherence to the
laws and Christian principles.

For this I suffer, and for this I die."

The Bishops add, that they conceive, that Sir William
Perkins used the term in the same sense, " being assured
(as we are by very good information) that both he and
Sir John Friend had withdrawn themselves from our
public assemblies some time before their death." They
then proceed to arraign the conduct of the three clergymen.
Collier, Snatt, and Cook : " For those clergymen, who
took upon them to absolve these criminals at the place of
execution, by laying, all three together, their hands upon
their heads, and publicly pronouncing a form of absolu-
tion; as their manner of doing this was extremely insolent,
and without precedent, either in our Church or any other
that we know of, so the thing itself was altogether irregular.
The rubric in our office of the visitation of the sick, from
whence they took the words they then used, and upon
which, if upon anything in. our liturgy, they must ground
this their proceeding, gave them no authority nor pretence
for absolving these persons." They further state, that the
rubric relates to sick persons who have made a confession;
while these clergymen absolved notorious criminals, with-
out even moving them to make a special confession of
their sins, the parties themselves not desiring absolution.
It is alleged, that the clergy, as they knew nothing of the
state of mind in which the criminals were, could not

COLLIER. 141

absolve them, without a breach of the order of the Church.
The Bishops also add, that the clergy, if they were aware
of the sentiments of the criminals declared in their
papers, must have viewed them as hardened impenitents, or
martyrs. The Bishops consider the former supposition as
quite out of the question : but they remark on the other,
" If they held these men to be martyrs, then their absolv-
ing them in that manner was a justification of those
grievous crimes for which these men suffered, and an open
affront to the laws both of Church and State." The
Bishops then add, that they were moved by a desire to
prevent the Church from being misunderstood ; and that,
therefore, " we disown and detest all such principles and
practices ; looking upon them as highly schismatical and
seditious, dangerous both to the Church and State, and
contrary to the true doctrine and spirit of the Christian
religion."

To this Collier published a reply ; he regards their
manifesto as an unsupported censure. In this jDaper he
enters, at some length, on the defence of the practice of
the imposition of hands, on the ground of its primitive
use. To the charge, that no such ceremony is enjoined
by the rubric, he replies : " true ; neither is there any
prohibition. The rubric is perfectly silent both as to
posture and gesture, and yet some circumstances of this
nature must of necessity be used. Now since our Church
allows the priest imposition of hands in another case, and
does not forbid it in this, is it any harm if our liberty
moves upward, and determines itself by general usage and
primitive practice ?" Some " Animadversions'' on Collier's
Two Papers were speedily published. They were written
by Hody, and at the command of the Archbishop,
Tennison. Collier, who seldom allowed an opponent to
remain unanswered, was soon ready with a reply. The
only point which it is necessary to notice, relates to the
question of laying on of hands. The animadverter states,
that the ceremony is not retained by the Church of
England : and that consequently ministers should not

142 COLLIER.

make use of any, which are not positively enjoined.
ColHer replies as follows. " His affirming that imposition
of hands is not retained in the Church of England, will
not hold generally speaking. For this ceremony is re-
tained both in orders and confirmation : which is a suffi-
cient argument of its being approved by the Church. But
the Church does not retain it in her absolutions. I grant
'tis not in the rubric for that purpose. And therefore, had
it been used at the Daily Service or upon any solemn
occasion regulated by the Church there might have been
some pretence for exception ; but the rubric and act of
uniformity, mentioned by the animadverter, provide only
against innovations, in stated and public administrations.
'Tis in Churches and Church appointments that the rubric
condemns adding or diminishing. But this is none of the
present case. For the Church has not prescribed us any
ofjice for executions. Every priest is here left to his
liberty, both as to office and gesture, to substance and
ceremony. The devotion may be all private composition,
if the confessor pleases. And when out of respect to the
Church, he selects any part of her liturgy, though the
form is public, the choice and occasion are private, which
makes it fall under another denomination. The selected
office in this case, is like coin melted into bullion. The
public impression is gone : and wath that the forfeitures
for clipping and alloy are gone too : and the honest pro-
prietor may add to the quantity, or alter the figure as he
thinks fit. I confess had the Cliurch excepted against
the imposition of hands in absolution : had she condemned
the ceremony thus applied, and laid a general prohibition
upon it : her members ought to govern themselves accord-
ingly, and not to use it, so much as in private: but since
the Church prescribes this rite in her rubric, and takes
notice of it only by way of practice and approbation : when
matters stand thus, I say, her non-prohibition implies
allowance in private ministrations, and in cases no way
determined by herself For pray what is liberty, but the
absence of command, the silence of authority, and leaving

COLLIER 143

things in their natural indifferency ? Thus the point was
understood and practised by the famous Bishop Sanderson,
upon one of the most solemn occasions, and in which
himself was most nearly concerned. This eminent casuist
about a day before his death, desired his chaplain,
Mr. Pullin, to give him absolution : and at his performing
that office he pulled of his cap, that Mr. Pullin might lay
his hand upon his bare head."

The government of course proceeded on the publication
of the episcopal document, to persecute these clergymen,
although it is difficult to say of what offence they had
been guilty. Cook and Snatt were admitted to bail.
Collier, however, refusing to give bail was outlawed ; and
under this sentence he continued through life, because he
refused to submit. But though outlawed and living in
retirement, he continued to defend his cause by a variety
of papers or pamphlets.

When this affair was over. Collier employed himself in
reviewing and finishing several miscellaneous pieces of
his, which he published under the title of Essays upon
several moral subjects. They consist of three volumes in
8vo; the first of which was printed in the year 1697, the
second in 1705, and the third in 1709. They are written
with such a mixture of learning and wit, and in a style so
easy and flowing, that notwithstanding the prejudice of
party, which ran, as may easily be imagined, strong against
him, they were generally well received, and have gone
through many editicms since. It was the success of the first
volume, which encouraged the author to add the other two.
In the year 1698, he made an attempt to reform the
stage, by publishing his Short View of the immorality and
profaneness of the English stage, together with the sense
of antiquity upon this argument, 8vo. This engaged him
in a controversy with the wits of those times ; and Con-
greve and Vanbrugh, whom, with many others, he had
attacked very severely, appeared openly against him. The
pieces he wrote in this controversy, besides the first
already mentioned, were, his Defence of the Short View,

144 COLLIER.

being a reply to Mr. Congreve's Amendments, &c., and to
the vindication of the author of the Relapse, 1699, 8vo.
A second Defence of the Short View, being a reply to a
book entitled, The Ancient and Modern stages surveyed,
&c., 1700, 8vo : the book here replied to was written by
Dr. Drake. Mr. Collier's Dissuasive from the play-house :
in a letter to a person of quality, occasioned by the late
calamity of the tempest, 1703, 8vo. A farther Vindication
of the Short View, &c., in which the objections of a late
book entitled, a Defence of Plays are considered, 1708, 8vo.
In this controversy with the stage. Collier exerted himself
to the greatest advantage ; and shewed, that a clergyman
might have wit, as well as learning and reason, on his
side. It is remarkable, that his labours here were
attended with success, and actually produced repentance
and amendment ; for it is allowed on all hands, that the
decorum, which has been for the most part observed by
the modern writers of dramatic poetry, is entirely owing
to the animadversions of Collier. What Dryden said
upon this occasion, will shew, that this observation is not
made without sufficient foundation. " I shall say the less
of Mr. Collier, because in many things he has taxed me
justly ; and I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and
expressions of mine, which can be truly arraigned of
obscenity, profaneness, or immorality, and retract them.
If he be my enemy, let him triumph ; if he be my friend,
as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise,
he will be glad of my repentance. It becomes me not to
draw my pen in the defence of a bad cause, when I have
so often drawn it for a good one."

His next publication was a translation of Moreri, of
which the first two volumes were printed in 1701, the
third, under the title of a "Supplement," in 1705, and the
fourth, called an Appendix, in 1721. About 1701 he pub-
lished a translation of the meditations of Marcus Antoni-
nus. In the year 1708 was published the first volume of
that work so often quoted in the present publication, his
" Ecclesiastical History." The second appeared in 1714.

COLLIER. 145

It is distinguished by its bold impartiality as to facts, and
by its determined and thoroughly Anglican character as to
principles. He never fears to declare his principles, but
in giving his facts, he would rather listen to the assertions
of an opponent, than take for granted the declarations of a
partizan. The work being a valuable one, was of course
attacked. Bishop Nicholson and Bishop Kennet, parti-
sans of the Revolution, were his opponents, but Collier
was more than a match for them.

Before the publication of the second volume, in the
year 1713, Collier had been consecrated to the episcopal
oflSce among the Nonjurors, and after the death of the
justly celebrated Hickes, he became the most distinguished
of their prelates, until the body separated into two sections
in consequence of the controversy relating to the usages ;
an account of which shall be given from Lathbury, to
whom the reader has been already indebted.

The controversy did not spring up till after the death of
Hickes : but similar views, with those entertained by the
advocates for alterations, had been advanced in his Chris-
tian Priesthood, which may have had some influence in
the disputes. It is remarkable, that the men, who depre-
cated any changes in 1C89, should have been the first to
alter the Communion Service. They actually split upon
the very rock, that of alterations, which by the good Provi-
dence of God, the Church had avoided — and avoided too
by the opposition of the very men, who now advocated the
change. Any material alterations at the Revolution
might have endangered the Church : aud the changes
made by some of the Nonjurors weakened them so much,
as a party, that they never assumed so compact a form
after this period. The divisions, indeed, which now
sprang up, may be assigned as the remote cause of their
extinction.

The Communion Ofiice, in the First Book of King
Edward, A. D. 1549, differed, as is well known, from that
of the second, and of all our succeeding books, in several

VOL. IV. p

146 COLLIER.

particulars. Certain practices and several petitions were
kid aside, when the book was revised in 1552. In the
year 1717, when this dispute commenced, a reprint of the
first Communion Book was published by the Nonjurors,
wlio wished to adopt the usages, which were rejected when
the book was reviewed.

Collier took the lead in this controversy. Hickes had
expressed his preference of the fiirst Communion Book,
but during his life no formal proposal was made by Collier
to publish a new book. In the year 1717, appeared the
" Reasons for Restoring Some Prayers, d-c.'' The work was
published by Morphew, who was the printer of the Com-
munion Office : from which circumstance, we may infer
the probability, that Collier, or one of the Nonjurors, w^as
the originator of the latter.

This tract was written in a candid and moderate tone.
The author enters very abruptly upon his work : for the
\erj first sentence in the tract is the following : " The
rubric orders the putting a little pure icater to the wine
in the chalice." He then proceeds to adduce evidence in
proof of the antiquity of the practice. Justin Martyr,
irenseus, Clemens Alexandrinus, St. Cyprian, are quoted
as authorities for the practice in early times, besides the
Apostolical Constitutitms. The council of Carthage, A. D.
5^97, the council in Trullo, and the liturgies of St. Basil
and St. Chrysostom are also cited.

The next point is the introduction of the words " Mili-
tant here on Earth,'' after the words " Let us pray for the
whole state of Christ's Church." The previous words,
he says, *' seem inserted to exclude Prayer for the Dead."
In ths first book there was a petition for the desid : and he
contends, that such a recommendation of the departed to
the mercy of God, " is nothing of the remains of popery,
but a constant usage of the primitive Church." Tertullian,
Oypiian, Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Ambrose, St. Epiphanius,
St. Chrysostom, St. Augustin, and the Apostolical Con-
stitutions, with certain ancient liturgies, are quoted in

COLLIER. 147

support of this statement, besides certain individuals, who
actually prayed for deceased friends. Collier argues that
the Church of England, though she condemns the Eomish
doctrine of purgatory, has not condemned prayers for the
dead : and he says : " Where the Church of England has
left her meaning doubtful, the greatest honour we can do
her is to interpret her to a conformity to primitive prac-
tice." Respecting the custom itself he says : " This cus-
tom, which began in the apostolical age, and was continued
through the whole church till the 16th century : this cus-
tom, we conceive, is very serviceable to the ends of reli-
gion : it supposes our friends but removed to a distant
country, and existing in a different condition : and that
they only die in one place to live in another. It refreshes
the belief of the soul's immortality, draws back the curtain
of the grave, and opens a communication between this
world and the other."

The third passage, which he wished to be restored was
the prayer of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the sacra-
mental elements. In the first liturgy was this petition :
" Hear us (0 Merciful Father) we beseech Thee, and with
Thy Holy Spirit and Word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify
these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they
may be unto us the Rody and Blood of Thy most dearly
beloved Son, Jesus Christ." He then adduces testimonies
from antiquity in favour of the petition. He admits that
the force of the invocation may be contained in our
present office: but he thinks that express terms are
desirable.

A fourth thing is specified, namely, the restoration of
the Oblatory prayer, which in the first liturgy came after
the consecration prayer. In that prayer are the following
words : " We Thy humble servants do celebrate and make
here before Thy Divine Majesty, with these Thy holy gifts,
the memorial which Thy Son hath willed us to make."
Collier's view of this prayer is thus stated : " The Oblatory
prayer goes upon this ground, that the Holy Eucbarist is
a proper sacrifice : and that our Blessed Saviour, at His

148 COLLIER.

last supper, offered the bread and wine to God the Father
as the symbols of His body and blood, and commanded
His Apostles to do the same." As before, several testi-
monies from antiquity are produced, besides the authority
of Hickes in his Christian Priesthood, and Johnson in his
Unbloody Sacrifice. He closes with an allusion to Bucer,
Calvin, and Peter Martyr, to whom our reformers are sup-
posed to have yielded in rejecting these four practices.
" From hence we infer," says he, " that the explanations,
as they are called, in the second book, were not made
without compliance with the weakness of some people ;
not without condescension to those who had more scruples
than understanding, more heat than light in them."

In a very short time an answer was published by a
Nonjuror. Collier had written with moderation, and the
reply evinces a similar spirit. The writer is anxious to
prevent divisions among themselves : and he is apprehen-
sive of danger from the proposed changes. He takes up
the four points, in the order in which they are ranged by
Collier, and refutes them.

Collier, Brett, and Campbell the Scottish Bishop, were
the chief of that section, by whom the restoration of the
prayers and directions was advocated : while Spinkes,
Gandy, Taylor, and Bedford strenuously contended for a
strict adherence to the liturgy, as now used in the Church
of England.

At the commencement of the year 1718, Collier pub-
lished an answer to the reply to his former pamphlet, in
which he meets the objections alleged by his opponent
against the restoration of the prayers. Collier asks, whe-
ther Justin Martyr is not early enough, the author of ''No
Reason, dc,'' having objected on the ground, that he was
too late as an evidence in such a matter. It would occupy
too much space to go over Collier's reasoning. It may,
therefore, be sufficient to observe, that he enters at great
length into all the arguments advanced by his opponent,
with a view to the establishment of his former positions.
He closes in these words : " The best service we can do

COLLIER. 149

the Church of England, is to recover the main of her first
reformation : to retrieve what she has suffered by inter-
ested views, by foreign direction, and calvinistic alloy.
Thus I humbly conceive she will be remarkably Decus et
tiitamen, and have new strength and lustre upon her.
Thus she will better endure the test of antiquity, be more
covered from assault, and stand impregnable."

The author of " No Reason for restoring, dr.,'' very soon
published another pamphlet in reply to Collier, entitled
** No Sufficient Reason for Restoring some Prayers and
Directions of King Edward VI/s First Liturgy.'' Collier
immediately replied, for his answer was published in the
same year. This is a work of considerable size ; and
every page affords evidence of the learning and talents
of the author. " The Vindication' was replied to by
the author of " iVo Reason, t^c," and ''No Sufficient
Reason, dr." After which Collier published in the year
1720, 'M Farther Defejice, dc, being an Answer to a
Reply to the Vindication of the Reasons and Defence for
Restoring, dc. "

Collier preferred the first Communion Book, while
his opponent was strenuous for adhering to our present
form. The latter considered the practices as immaterial :
and consequently that no sufficient reason could be
pleaded for their restoration. It will be seen that the con-
troversy continued several years : and that the parties
became embittered towards each other as it proceeded.

During the progress of this controversy between the two
sections of the Nonjurors, the new communion office was
actually published.

In the prayer for the King no name is used, but only a
petition for the Sovereign : and of course the four points
contended for by Collier and Brett are incorporated into
the office.

During his latter years, Collier suffered much frnni
attacks of the stone, to which he fell a victim on the
2(Uh of April, ilUQ. His chief works have been alj-eady

•2p

150 COLUMBA.

mentioned. Various smaller publications were at different
periods sent forth by him ; but we are not aware of these
having been enumerated. — Blog. Brit. Lathbury. Collier's
Tracts.

COLUMBA, SAINT.

Saint Columba was bom at Gartan, in the county of
Donegal, about the year of our Lord 522. His baptismal
name was Crimthan ; but in consequence of the remark-
able mildness of his disposition and the gentleness of his
manners, he has ever been surnamed Columba, or the
Dove. Like other religious youths of his age, it was
natural that he should early seek admission into one of
the monastic colleges ; and accordingly we find him first
studying in the monastery of Moville, over which an abbot
named Finian then presided. He continued here until
his admission to deacon's orders, when he placed himself
under the care of Germanus, or Gorman, who was at that
period considered a distinguished instructor of the young ;
and before he completed his studies, he spent some time
at the school of Clonard, whose celebrity has been noticed
already. The life he passed in these schools was a very
strict one. Emulous of evangelic perfection, and inflamed
with the love of Christ, he, as well as the other religious
youths, used to pass their days in voluntary poverty, in
vigils, fastings, and heavenly contemplation. The time
that was not occupied in acts of piety or in study, was
employed in labouring with their hands for their daily
food.

St. Columba commenced his public career in the foun-
dation of the abbey of Derry, in the year 546. This was
only the first of a great number of monastic houses and
churches, which owed their erection to his instrumen-
tality. Indeed, so numerous are they said to have been,
that from this circumstance he received the addition of
" cille" to his name, and is now usually known as
Columb-cille, or Columb of the Churches.

COLUMBA. 151

It was about the year 551 when Columba was admitted
to the priesthood ; and it requires to be noticed that he
never rose to the episcopal order, although few, perhaps,
were better qualified for this sacred office. This circum-
stance, apparently so strange, is thus accounted for in an
old legend : —

" Columba," says the writer, " while still only a deacon,
was sent to a certain Bishop Etchen to be raised to the
episcopal order. Etchen would appear to have been one
of those anchoiite bishops about whom something was
said in the last chapter. He was ploughing in the field
when Columba arrived at his cell ; and as soon as he
heard the name of his visitor, the bishop left his simple
occupation to bid him welcome. Nor, when informed of
the object of his visit, did Etchen hesitate for a moment
compliance with his request. He immediately proceeded
to the solemn ceremony of the ordination ; but (continues
the legend), owing to some oversight, he fixed on the
wrong office, and instead of consecrating him a bishop,
only ordained him a priest. On discovering his mistake,
Etchen offered to go on regularly ; but Columba declined,
and attributing the occurrence to some providential inter-
ference, expressed his resolution to remain in the order of
the priesthood during the rest of his life."

Whatever difficulties may attend the reception of this
story, there is reason to believe it true in all important
particulars ; and it tends to prove the existence in Ireland
of the evil custom censured in the Nicene council, of one
bishop consecrating another without the assistance of
coadjutors. It also leads us to conjecture, that deacons
in the Irish Church were occasionally advanced to the
highest degree, without being required to be ordained
priests.

Some time after his ordination, St. Columba set forth,
with twelve companions, on his eventful expedition to the
Highlands of Scotland. He arrived in that country in the
year 563, and fixed his abode on the small island of lona,
the grant of which he had received from Conall, King of

15a COLUMBA.

the Dal-aradian Scots. Here he erected a monastery, and
commenced his labours for the conversion of the Picts.
These were attended with so much success, that his fame
spread through every part of Britain ; and the monastery
of lona became in time, the chief seat of learning and
piety in the Western Isles. But after some years of
anxious exertion, his attention was diverted from the care
of his converts to the social troubles of Ireland. There
was a dispute between Aid, the King of Ireland, and his
kinsman Aidan, King of the Albanian Scots, respecting
the right of possession to the territory of Dal-aradia. Both
sovereigns laid a claim to it : the Scottish prince asserting
that the land in dispute belonged to him by right of here-
ditary succession ; while the Irish monarch was unwilling
that a foreign prince should enjoy any sovereignty in his
dominions. And, in addition to the dangers that thus
threatened the integrity of the kingdom, the overgrown
power of the fileas, or bards, greatly obstructed its internal
tranquillity. Their rude rhymes were very acceptable to
the Irish populace, who would never grow wearied of listen-
ing to their panegyrics on the national valour, or the heroic
deed of some favourite warrior. The bards were not slow
in marking the effect of their songs upon the people— how
the popular attention was riveted, and their enthusiasm
excited ; but they made use of their acquired influence for
the very worst ends. Intent only upon enriching them-
selves, they did not hesitate to defame those who would
not purchase their good- will with costly presents : and,
protected as they were, by the favour of the people, they
seemed conscious that no harm could happen to their
persons. They therefore increased in licentious boldness,
and by the virulence of their satirical verses, wounded
many of the influential chieftains of the day, who bore
with the evil until it appeared no longer endurable.

To find some remedy for this abuse, as well as to settle
the affair about the Dal-aradian territory, an assembly of
the states of the kingdom was convened at Drum-ceat, in
the county of Deiry, in the year 590. The council con-

COLUMBA. 153

sisted of the Irish Monarch, the nobles, and the clergy,
who, since the conversion of the island to the Christian
faith, had in a great measure succeeded to the political
privileges of the pagan Druids. Columba came over from
lona to attend the council, and by his mediation, succeed-
ed in preserving the order of the bards from the sentence
of abolition, contemplated by the King and nobles. He
conceived that no good end could result from the extinc-
tion of an order so intimately connected with the manners
of the people ; and therefore proposed that, instead of
extirpating them altogether, the assembly should be satis-
fied with correcting their excesses, and enacting laws for
their more effectual control in future. To this proposal
there was at first some little opposition, but it was in the
end unanimously conceded to. The Dal-aradian dispute
was also arranged to the satisfaction of all parties. By
the advice of St. Columba, the whole matter was left to
the arbitration of a holy person named Col man, who gave
it as his decision, that the province — so far as the payment
of tribute and similar affairs was concerned — ought to be
subject to the Irish Monarch ; but that the Scots, as being
themselves the descendants of the Dal-aradians, might
call upon them for aid and assistance in times of just
necessity. And the readiness with which this decision
was acquiesced in, is a proof of the estimation in which
the integrity of religious men was then held, as well as
of the extensive power that was on more than one occasion
conceded to them.

Upon the breaking up of the council, Columba proceed-
ed to visit some of his Irish monasteries ; and after com-
pleting his inspection of them, returned to his favourite
residence at lona. Here he ended his days on the 9th of
June, in the year 597. His remains were buried in lona;
but at a subsequent period are said to have been transla-
ted to Ireland, and placed in the same tomb with that of
Patrick and Bridgit, at Downpatrick. — The ivJiole of this.
Account is taken from Todd's Ancient Church in Ireland.

154 COLUMBANUS.

C0LUMBANU3, SAINT.

Saint Columbanus was an emiDent Christian mis-
sionary of the sixth century. lie was born in Ireland, in
the year 560, in the province of Lagcnia, or Leinster. In
his youth he learnt the liberal arts, grammar, rhetoric and
geometry ; but as he had a graceful person, and fearing
that he should become subject to the temptations of plea-
sure, he left his country, notwithstanding his mother's oppo-
sition, and going into another province of Ireland, he put
himself under the guidance of a venerable person named
Silen, who so well instructed in sacred literature, that
even in his youth he composed a treatise upon the psalms,
and some other works. He afterwards entered into the
monastery of Bancor, the most famous of Ireland, at that
time under the government of the Abbot Cornmogel, or
Congal, and lived there several years, accustoming him-
self to works of mortification. To disengage himself yet
more from the world, he purposed to travel into a foreign
country, aft(!r the example of Abraham. He communicated
his intention to the abbot, who with great difficulty suf-
fered himself to be deprived of such an assistant ; but at
last believing that it was God's will, he consented to it.
St. Columbanus having received his benediction, departed
from Bancor with twelve other monks, being about thirty
years of age. They passed into Great Britain, and from
thence to Gaul. The faith was there entire, but the dis-
cipline much neglected, whether by the incursions of
foreigners, or the remissness of the prelates.

Columbanus preached in all places through which he
passed, and his virtues added great weight to his instruc-
tions. He was so humble, that he always contended with
his companions for the lowest place : they were all of one
mind ; their modesty, sobriety, gentleness, patience and
charity, made them universally admired. If any one was
guilty of a fault, they all joined in reforming his error.
Kvery thing was in common ; nor was ever any contradic-

COMBEFIS. 155

tion, or hard words heard among them. In whatsoever
place they abode, their example inspired an universal
piety. Columbanus' reputation reached even to the court
of the King of Burgundy : this was Gontran, who, upon
hearing his character, desired him to stay in his kingdom,
and otTered him whatsoever he should desire. The holy
man thanked him, saying, that he desired nothing but to
cari7 his cross after Jesus Christ, and chose the vast
Desart of Vosge for his retreat, where among the rocks,
and in a most barren place, he found the ruins of an
old castle named Anagrates, at present Anegray, and
there settled with his companions. This was his first
monastery.

In 589 he founded the monastery of Luxcvil, near
Besangon, which lie governed for twenty years. In 508
he engaged in a controversy with pope (Gregory c(mcerning
the proper time of keeping Easter; but he at length
submitted to the court of Rome. From France he was
banished for censuring the immoralities of Theodoric and
his Queen ; he then went to Switzerland, where he was
kindly received by Theodebert, King of that country, and
was successful in converting the pagans ; but the; Swiss
army being defeated by the Fiench, he was obliged to
remove to Italy, where, under the protection of the King
of the Lombards, he founded in 013, the abbey of Bobio,
near Naples. Over this monastery he presided but a
short time; he died on the 21st of November, 615. — Cave
Fleury.

COMBEiaS, FRANCIS.

Francis Combefis was born in 1005 at Marmauile, and
at twenty years of age assumed the habit of a Benedictine,
at Bordeaux, where he taught philosophy and theology.
lie entered a convent of his order at Paris, in 1040.
lU'ing learned in the Greek language, he undertook. the
ofhce (jf editor to several of the ancient fathers, and dedi-
cated fifty years of his Ufe to this work. He was not by

156 COMBER.

any means so skilled in Latin, as he was in Greek, and
his translations are obscure, and sometimes nearly unin-
telligible. He died in 1679. His principal works are —
1. S.S. Patrum, Amphilochii, Methodii, et Andrese Ore-
tensis opera Omnia, Paris, 1644, 2 vols, folio. 2. Graeco-
Latinse Patrum Bibliothecse novum auctuarium, 1648,
2 vols, folio. 3. Bibliotheca Patrum concionatoria, 1662,
8 vols, folio. 4. Originum rerumque Constantinopoli-
tanarum et variis autoribus manipulus, etc., 1664, in 4to.
5. Bibliotheca Graecorum Patrum auctuarium novissi-
mum, Grsece et Latine, 1672, 2 vols, in folio. 6. Eccle-
siastes Grsecus, 1674, in 8vo. 7. S. Maximi opera, 1675,
2 vols, folio. 8. Basilius Magnus ex integro recensitus,
etc., 1679, 2 vols, 8vo. 9. Historioe Byzantinas Scriptores
post Theophanem usque ad Nicephorum Phocam, GrEece
et Latine, 1685, folio. — Biorjraphie Universelle.

COMBER, THOMAS.

Thomas Comber was born at Westerham, in Kent,
March 19th, 1644. His father was persecuted for his
loyalty, and obliged to take refuge in Flanders, leaving
young Comber to be educated by his mother. At the
period of her death, in 1672, he gratefully remembered
the care she took of his education, describing her as " a
person of great understanding, lovely aspect, and admirable
piety, and so tender of me, that her whole life was dedi-
cated to my improvement in learning and virtue ; and I
believe no son and mother did more entirely love each
other, nor did I ever know any thing touch my heart so
near as her death." Under her superintendence he re-
ceived his primary education at the school of his native
place, where his progress was so rapid that he could read
and write Greek before he was ten years old. Thence he
removed, in 1653, to London, and passed some time under
a schoolmaster, a distant relation; and in 1656 he re-
turned to his first master at Westerham. In 1659 lie was

COMBER. 157

admitted of Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, where he
was placed under the care of the Rev. Edmund Matthews,
B.D., senior fellow and preside.it of the college, to whom
he acknowledges his obligations for the pains he took in
instructing him in science and in the languages. In 1 66:2
he was chosen scholar of the house. Having been ad-
mitted to the degree of B.A. in 1662, he was obliged, by the
narrowness of his circumstances, to leave the university,
and retire to his mother's house. In this situation, how-
ever, he was befriended by a Mr. John Holney, of Eden-
bridge, who, discerning his talents, made him a handsome
present, and signified to him his wish that he would draw
upon him at any time for any sum he might require.

Early in 1663 he accepted an invitation to the house of
the Rev. William Holland, rector of Allhallows, Staining,
London, whose assistant he became. Soon after he was
invited to be curate to the Rev. Gilbert Bennet, who held
the living of Stonegrave, in Yorkshire, At Stonegrave,
his character having recommended him to the notice of
Mr. Thornton, of East Newton, he was invited to reside at
that gentleman's house, and he afterwards married one of
his daughters. In 1669 Mr. Bennet resigned to him the
living of Stonegrave, as he had promised to do when he
engaged him as his curate. Having long been an admirer
of the church-service, he determined to recommend it to
the public, which at that time was frequently interested
in disputes respecting set forms and extempore prayer :
and with this view he published, about 167-2, the first part
of his Companion to the Temple ; in 1674 the second
part; and in 1675 the third part, of which a different
arrangement was adopted in the subsequent editions.
In 1677 he was installed prebendary of Holme, in the
metropolitan church of York ; and the same year a third
edition of his Companion to the Temple was published,
together with his first book on the Right of Tithes, &c.,
against Elwood the Quaker, and his Friendly and Season-
able Advice to the Roman Catholics of England. This

VOT, IV. Q

15S COMBER.

little book was republished with alterations and notes by
the author of these biographies about twenty years ago,
and is now reprinting, so valuable does it appear to him,
and so profitable for these times. The same year appeared
his Brief Discourse on the Offices of Baptism, Catechism,
and Confirmation, dedicated to Dr. Tillotson. In 1678
he was presented to the living of Thornton by Sir Hugh
Cholmeley. In 1680 he published, in answer to Selden s
History of Tithes, the first part of his Historical Vindica-
tion of the Divine Right of Tithes, and in 1681 the second
part. Some time in this year he published a tract, enti-
tled Religion and Loyalty, intended to convince the Duke
of York that no person in succession to the throne of
England ought to embrace popery : but to persuade the
people of England not to alter the succession.

In 1683 a correspondence took place between him and
Dr. Grenville, who wrote to him to tell him of some
kind expressions used towards him by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr. Sancroft ; in the course of this letter
Dr. Grenville, speaking of his waiting upon the Archbishop
of York, says, " I could not have any private conference
with his grace to fling in any item concerning you, or my
own great affair about the weekly Sacrament, which above
all other matters oppresses my mind." " I am told," adds
he, " by Dr. Beveridge that it is intended to have one,
when St. Paul's is rebuilt, in that cathedral ; and by the
Dean of Canterbury, that they are likely soon to set up
one in their church, which will have a great influence on
all the cathedrals in the kingdom. Dr. Beveridge his
devout practice and order in his church, doth exceedingly
edify the city, and his congregation increases every week :
he hath seldom less than four-score, sometimes six or seven
score communicants, and a great many young apprentices,
who come there every Lord's day with great devotion.
The doctor approves of my honest designs, and hath con-
firmed me very much in my resolutions, and will be I
pv(3mise myself a very useful friend to me.

COMBER. 159

" When your folio edition on the Common Prayer
comes forth," adds the doctor, " I promise myself the
honour of presenting it to the King ; it will prove a very
good application to my sermon, which begins and ends
you know with my beloved mistress the Common Prayer
Book."

The object of procuring a w^eekly Communion in all the
cathedrals throughout the kingdom, which Dr. Grenville
calls his great affair, seems indeed to have been very near
his heart, for amongst the numerous letters he wrote
to Dr. Comber, and which are still extant, he presses this
point with great zeal, desiring his correspondent to use
his utmost exertions to effect this great point.

This good, affectionate, and amiable man, in another
letter says, " But to return to my old topic of pushing on
the weekly Sacrament, you and I are more particularly
concerned in this good work, than any other clergymen
that I know of in the whole province, and I am certain
that it is the expectation of several clergy and devout
people in these parts, that we should do more than others.
You are looked on to be the greatest champion for the
Common Prayer Book in the whole country, (nay per-
chance in all England ;) and I am considered as one of
the more exact observers of the rubric, and sticklers for
conformity ; and I dare without pride or vanity own that
I am a hearty lover of the book, and have in me some
innate zeal for order. Really Dr. Comber this is a great
and excellent work, and will do God more service than all
your past labours, or my past endeavours since our first
coming into the ministry. It will have a wonderful influ-
ence over all the north, and shame the other cathedrals into
the like practice : which accompanied with such a circular
letter as my Lord of Canterbury intends to send to the
bishops of his own province, would in a powerful manner
preach to all the inferior clergy, not only frequent com-
munion, but exact conformity. Without doubt these
means that are of Christ's own institution, and the incom-
parable established order of our own church, (the most

160 COMBER.

incomparable and unexceptionable institution in all Chris-
tendom,) are the most probable means to revive religion,
devotion, conformity, and loyalty, in the land."

The design of establishing weekly Communions, which
the doctor seems to have desired so earnestly, was soon
afterwards carried into execution in the metropolitan
church of Canterbury, as appears from a letter of
Dr. Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, still extant: the same
laudable practice was also established about the same time
in the cathedral of York, as appears from divers letters to
and from our author.

In 1683 Dr. Dolben was appointed to the metropolitan
see of York, and one of his first acts was, to obtain for
Comber the precentorship of York Minster. In 1685 the
Archbishop of York offered him the Archdeaconry of Cleve-
land, now void by Dr. Long s death ; but he, excusing
himself, recommended his old friend Dr. Burton, rector of
Sutton, who had been Mr. Thornton's preceptor previous
to his going to college. His grace paid so much attention
to this recommendation, that he gave the arclideaconry to
the doctor.

At his request the Archbishop of York issued his com-
mands to have the holy Communion administered every
Lord's day in the cathedral at York, and on the 26th of
April this laudable practice first began. There is extant
a letter from Dr. Grenville to the precentor on this
subject, in which he speaks in very enthusiastic terms
on this head.

The precentor began his second residence at York the
11th of May, and on the 14th was elected a procurator for
King James's convocation, which was to open on the 20th
of the same month.

King James having, very soon after the death of his
brother Charles II., published certain papers, said to have
been found in his late majesty's box, and which pretended
to give an account of the reasons which induced him to
turn to the religion of Home, the precentor wrote shorty
but severe animadversions upon them ; he likewise did

COMBER. 161

the same thing with those called the Duchess's Papers,
which gave a like weak and improbable account of her per
version to the Romish religion.

In 1688 King James sent a silver crosier to York, and
a conge d'elire, with a recommendation of Dr. Smith, a
popish priest, but the chapter of York, under the influence
of Comber, though he was not present on the occasion, in-
stead of acceding to the royal mandate, elected Dr. Thomas
Lamplugb, Bishop of Exeter. In all the proceedings of
the Revolution Comber heartily concurred, and was a
most determined Whig, vindicating the loyalty of King
William's government, but at the same time attending
with devotion to the duties of his holy oflBce. Among his
papers was found a memorandum, that " an unknown
person sent a noble crimson velvet cloth with rich em-
broidery, and gold fringe, to adorn the altar of the
cathedral," and he prays that God may reward his alms
done in secret, very openly, observing that it was a very
seasonable and liberal gift.

In 1691 the revolutionary government appointed him
to the deanery of Durham, in the place of his old admirer
and friend, Dr. Grenville, who became a Nonjuror, and
attended the King to France. Dr. Grenville repeatedly
wrote to Dean Comber, treating him as an intruder, and
desiring him to consider himself only as his steward until
he with King James should have his own again. Comber
died in 1699, of a consumption, before he had completed
his 55 th year.

Besides the works already noticed. Dr. Comber wrote,
1. A Scholastical History of the primitive and general Use
of Liturgies in the Christian Church; together with an
Answer to Mr. David Clarkson's late Discourse concern-
ing Liturgies, London, 1690, dedicated to King WilHam
and Queen Mary. 2. A Companion to the Altar ; or, an
Help to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper, by
Discourses and Meditations upon the whole Communion-
Ofiace. 3. A brief Discourse upon the Offices of Baptism,
q2

ICa COMPTON.

Catechism, and Confirmation, printed at the end of the
Companion to the Altar. 4. A Discourse on the Occa-
sional Offices in the Common Prajer, viz : Matrimony,
Visitation of the Sick, Burial of the Dead, Churching of
Women, and the Commination. 5. A Discourse upon the
Manner and Form of making Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons, London, 1699, 8vo, dedicated to Archbishop
Tenison. 6. Short Discourses upon the whole Common
Prayer, designed to inform the judgment, and excite the
devotion of such as daily use the same, chiefly by way of
paraphrase, London, 1684, Bvo, dedicated to Anne, Prin-
cess of Denmark, to whom the author was chaplain.
7. Roman Forgeries in the Councils during the first
four centuries ; together with an Appendix, concerning
the Forgeries and Errors in the Annals of Baronius, ibid,
1689, 4to. — Comber's Life of Comber.

COMPTON, HENEY.

Henky Compton, youngest son of Spencer, second
Earl of Northampton, was born at Compton, in 1632.
He received his primary education at a grammar school,
and was, in 1649, entered a nobleman of Queen s College,
Oxford, where he continued till about 1552, and soon
after travelled on the continent. At the Restoration he
returned to England, and became a cornet in a regiment
of horse, raised about that time for the King's guard ; but
soon quitting that post, he went to Cambridge, where he
was created M,A., and entering into orders when about
thirty years of age, he was admitted canon of Christ
Church, Oxford, in the beginning of 1666. In April of
the same year he was incorporated M. A. at Oxford, hold-
ing at that time the rectory of Cottenham, in Cambridge-
shire. In 1667 he was made master of St. Cross, near
Winchester. In May 1669 he was installed canon of
Christ Church. In December 1674 he was preferred to

COMPTON. 163

the Bishopric of Oxford, and about a year after he was
made dean of the Chapel Royal, and was also translated
to the see of London. Anthony Wood tells us, that
" this translation w^as much promoted by some of the
politic clergy, because they knew him to be a bold man,
an enemy to the papists, and one that would act and
speak, what they would put him upon, which they them-
selves would not be seen in, as many prime papists used
to say." Bishop Burnet informs us further, that " this
translation was effected through the Earl of Danby's
interest ; to whom the Bishop, he says, was a property,
and turned by him as he pleased. The Duke of York
hated him ; but Lord Danby persuaded both the King
and the Duke, that as his heat did no great hurt to any
person, so the giving way to it helped to lay the jealousies
of the church party. He tells us also, that Archbishop
Sheldon dying about a year after that, Compton was per-
suaded Lord Danby had tried with all his strength to
promote him to Canterbury ; though that, he says, was
never once attempted."

Charles II. caused him to be sworn one of his privy-
council, and committed to him the education of his two
nieces, the Princesses Mary and Anne, whose attachment
to the protestant Church was owing in a great measure to
their tutor. Compton had early indulged the vain hope
of bringing the dissenters to a sense of the necessity of a
union among protestants ; to promote which, he held
several conferences with his own clergy, the substance of
w^hich he published in July, 1680. He further hoped
that dissenters might be the more easily reconciled to the
Church, if the judgment of foreign divines should be pro-
duced against their needless separation ; and for that
purpose he wrote to M. le Moyne, professor of divinity at
Leyden, to M. de lAngle, one of the preachers of the
protestant church at Charenton, near Paris, and to
M. Claude, another eminent French preacher. Their an-
swers are published at the end of Bishop Stillingfieet s
Unreasonableness of Separation, 1681, 4 to.

164 COMPTON.

The answers are not of much value ; they are evidently
written by men overwhelmed with a sense of the honour
done them by " Monseigneur," the Bishop, and wishing
to write what would please him without committing them-
selves. They all agree in thinking dissent unreasonable,
but they evidently were not acquainted with the circum-
stances of the case. There is nothing unreasonable in
those who do not hold sacramental religion, who reject
the notion of baptismal regeneration, and of the E,eal
Presence in the Eucharist, separating themselves from
the Church of England: the difficulty must be with them
to reconcile to their consciences conformity to the Church,
until these doctrines are received. It is on other grounds
that they must be persuaded, not to join the Church, but,
preparatory to their union, to accept the Church's faith.

To popery Bishop Compton was an unflinching enemy.
He omitted no opportunity of arresting its progress v»'hen
it was gaining ground in the reign of Charles II. ; and on
the accession of James II. he had the honour of being
dismissed from the council-table, and from the deanery of
the Chapel Royal. But the event of Bishop Compton 's
life, which has rendered his character historical, is that
w^hich relates to the proceedings against him in the
council chamber at Whitehall, before the Lords commis-
sioners appointed by King James the Second, in 1686.
The Lord Chancellor, who appears in these proceedings,
is the notorious Judge Jeffries. The following account is
taken from the State Trials : —

On Thursday, the 17th of June, Mr. Atterbury the
messenger, delivered a letter from his majesty, to my Lord
Bishop of London, at Fulham ; which letter was dated
Monday, June the I4th, and took notice, " that notwith-
standing the directions his majesty had given concerning
preachers, the 15th of March, 1685, Dr. John Sharp had,
in some sermons, presumed to make unbecoming reflec-
tions ; and used such expressions as tended to beget in
the minds of his hearers, an evil opinion of his majesty
and his government, and to dispose the people to rebel-

COMPTON. 165

lion. And therefore commanded the Bishop to suspend
the said Dr. John Sharp from preaching, till his majesty's
pleasure was further known."

In answer to which, my Lord Bishop of London wrote
to my Lord Sunderland the next day, being the 18th of
June, and sent the letter by Dr. Sharp. Wherein he
acquaints my Lord Sunderland, " He was concerned he
could not comply with his majesty's commands : that
being to act as a judge in this case, he could not condemn
the doctor till he had been cited, and he had knowledge
of the cause ; but that he had sent to the doctor, and
acquainted him with his majesty's displeasure, and found
him so ready to make all reasonable satisfaction, that he
had thought fit to make him the bearer of this answer.

The Sunday following Dr. Sharp carried a petition to
Windsor, which was not permitted to be read.

The substance of the petition was, that nothing could
be so afflictive as his unhappiness in having incurred his
majesty's displeasure, which he was so sensible of, that
he had forborne all public exercise of his function ever
since.

That he had ever faithfully endeavoured to do the best
service he could, as well to the late King as his majesty,
both by preaching and otherwise ; and that he had been
60 far from venting any thing that tended to schism or
faction, or the disturbance of the government, that he had
upon all occasions set himself against such doctrines and
principles as looked that way. But if any thing had slipt
from him, that was capable of giving any offence to his
majesty, he declared he had no ill intentions in those
expressions, and was heartily sorry for them ; and that he
would be so careful in the discharge of his duty for the
future, that his majesty should have reason to believe him
his most faithful subject ; and therefore desired to be
restored to the same favour the rest of the clergy enjoyed
under his majesty's government.

On Wednesday the 4th of August, 1686, my Lord Bishop
of London appeared before the commissioners, a<icording

166 COMPTON.

to their summons, at the council chamber at Whitehall ;
present, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Bishop of Durham,
Lord Treasurer, Lord Bishop of Rochester, Lord Presi-
dent, Lord Chief Justice Herbert.

The Lord Chancellor demanded why my Lord Bishop
of London had not suspended Dr. Sharp, according to the
King's command ?

The Lord Bishop of London answered, that he was
advised he could not legally do it, but by way of citation
and hearing him.

Lord Chancellor. You ought to have known the law
better: the King is to be obeyed, and if you have any
reasons to offer we are ready to hear you.

The Lord Bishop of London desired a copy of their
commission, and a copy of his charge ; and if he might
not have a copy of their commission, that he might read
it, or hear it read. Then he was ordered to withdraw ;
and being called again in about a quarter of an hour, the
Lord Chancellor acquainted him that the commissioners
were of opinion his request could not be granted : that if
every one that appeared there should demand a sight of
their commission their whole time would be taken up in
reading of it. That the proceedings of courts of this kind
were not by libel and articles, but by word of mouth ; and
it was a short question only they asked, why he did not
obey the King ?

My Lord Bishop of London desired the commissioners
to consider he was a peer and a bishop, and he desired to
behave himself as becomes one in those capacities ; and
hoped they would give him time till the next term to
make his defence.

The commissioners said, they thought that unreason-
able, but they would give his lordship a week's time ; and
then adjourned to the 9th of August.

On the 9th of August, the same' commissioners being
present, my Lord Bishop of London came before them,
attended by his nephew, the Earl of Northampton, Sir
John Nicholas, and his brother, Sir Francis Compton.

COMPTON. 167

My Lord Bishop of London said, he had not been able
to meet with their commission, till the night before,
though he was told he might see it in every coffee-house.

The Lord Chancellor answered, they would admit no
quarrelling at their commission ; they were well assured
of the legality of it, or they would not be such fools as to
sit there.

My Lord Bishop of London said, he desired a sight of
their commission, because, possibly, it might not reach
him, being a peer and a bishop ; and that he had not had
time to advise about it, and therefore desired a fortnight
longer, (which was granted.)

On Tuesday the 23rd day of August, my Lord Bishop
of London appeared before the same commissioners again.

Lord Bishop. My Lord, I have consulted those that
are very learned in the laws, who tell me that your pro-
ceedings in this court are directly contrary to the statute
law ; and they are here to plead it, if your lordship will
admit them.

Lord Chancellor. We will neither hear your lordship
nor your council in the matter : w^e are sufiBciently satis-
fied of the legality of our commission.

Lord Bishop. My lord, I am a bishop of the Church
of England ; and by all the law in the Christian Church,
in all ages, and by the particular law of this land, I am,
in case of offence, to be tried by my metropolitan and
suffragans : I hope your lordship will not deny the rights
and privileges of Christian bishops.

Lord Chancellor. My Lord, you know our proceedings
are according to what has been done formerly, and that
we have an original jurisdiction ; this is still questioning
our court.

Lord Bishop. My lords, protesting in my own right to
the laws of the realm, as a subject, and the rights and
privileges of the Church, as a bishop, I shall give in my
answer.

The answer was accepted, and the bishop withdrew ;
and after half an hour, the bishop and his council were

168 COMPTON.

called in, who were Dr. Oldish, Dr. Hodges, Dr. Price,
and Dr. Newton; whom the bishop desired might be
heard.

They argued, that the words of the King's letter being,
that you suspend him from preaching, this could not
be done by our laws without a citation, and proceeding to
judgment thereupon. But if by that expression only the
silencing the doctor was intended, then the bishop had
executed the King's commands in such a method as is
observed in their courts.

For where an eminent person is accused the judges
send him a letter ; and if he appears and complies with
the judges' order, the law^ is satisfied. Here the bishop
sent for Dr. Sharp, and advised him not to preach till the
King had received satisfaction : and he observed his lord-
ship's directions, and had not preached to this very day ;
so that his majesty's command was in effect fulfilled.
That the bishop had done what was his duty ; he was
bound to return his reason to the King why he did not
do that which he commanded, and to expect his farther
answer, w^iich was done. That if a prince or pope com-
mand any thing unlawful it is the duty of a judge Rescri-
bere Principi, and attend his further pleasure, and this is
all he can do. That as in nature no man can be obliged
to do that which is impossible ; so no man can be obliged
to do an unlawful act.

Lord Bishop. If through mistake I have erred in any
circumstance I am ready to beg his majesty's pardon,
and shall be ready to make any reparation I am capable.

The bishop withdrew for half an hour and then was
called in and acquainted that the commissioners would
be there again on Wednesday next, when his lordship
was directed to attend.

Die Luna 6 Septemh. 1686.

Lord Chancellor. You were desired to appear this day
to hear your sentence ; which to prevent mistake we have
ordered to be put in writing.

COMPTON. 169

Lord Bishop. My lord, may I have leave to speak
before sentence is read ?

Lord Chancellor. My lord, we have heard you and your
council already.

Then the instrument of suspension was read by Mr.
Bridgman, their lordships' register, viz :

By his Majesty's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical
Affairs, dc.

Whereas, Henry, Lord Bishop of London, hath been
convened before us, for his disobedience, and other his
contempts, mentioned in the proceedings of this cause ;
and the said Bishop being fully heard thereupon, we have
thought fit, upon mature consideration of the matter, to
proceed to this our definitive sentence ; declaring, pro-
nouncing, and decreeing, that the said Heniy, Lord Bishop
of London, shall, for his said disobedience and contempt,
be suspended during his majesty's pleasure. And accord-
ingly we do, by these presents, suspend him, the said
Lord Bishop of London ; peremptorily admonishing and
requiring him hereby to abstain from the function and
execution of his episcopal office, and from all episcopal and
other ecclesiastical jurisdiction, during the said suspension,
upon pain of deprivation and removal from his bishopric.
Sealed with the seal of the court, and dated the 6th
of September, 1686.

Some days after, an instrument was delivered by a
messenger to the Dean of St. Paul's, requiring him to
cause the said sentence to be affixed to the door of the
Chapter-house ; and on the place then called the south
door of St. Paul's.

The Bishop refusing to recognize the legality of the
court or its sentence, thought prudent to refrain from the
performance of any episcopal act in his diocese, but this did
not prevent his making a stand as one of the governors of
the Charter House, against the King, in refusing Andrew

TOL. IV. R

170 COMPTON.

Popham, a papist, into the first pensioner's place in that
hospital. He then retired to Fulham, where he reroained
till the Revolution called him again into action. His sus-
pension was such a flagrant act of tyrannical injustice,
that the Prince of Orange in his declaration, could not
omit taking notice of it; and, upon the dread of his
highness's coming over, the court was willing to make the
Bishop reparation, by restoring him, as they did on the
23rd of September, 1688, to his episcopal function. But
he made no haste to resume his charge, and to thank the
King for his restoration ; which made some conjecture,
and as was afterwards found rightly enough, that he had
no inclination to be restored in that manner, and that he
knew well enough what had been doing in Holland. The
first part the Bishop took in the Revolution, which imme-
diately ensued, was the conveying, jointly with the Earl
of Dorset, the Princess Anne of Denmark from London to
Nottingham ; lest she, in the present confusion of affairs,
might have been sent away into France, or put under
restraint, because the prince, her consort, had left King
James, and was gone over to the Prince of Orange.
Bishop Burnet has given us a particular account of this
transaction in the following words :

" When the news came to London of Prince G-eorge of
Denmark having joined the Prince of Orange, the Princess
Anne was so struck with the apprehensions of the King's
displeasure, and of the ill effects it might have, that she
said to the Lady Churchill that she could not bear the
thoughts of it, and would leap out at a window rather than
venture on it. The Bishop of London was then lodged
very secretly in Suffolk Street : so the Lady Churchill,
who knew where he was, went to him and concerted with
him the method of the Princess's withdrawing from court.
The Princess went sooner to bed than ordinary : and about
midnight, she went down a back stairs from her closet,
attended only by Lady Churchill, in such haste, that they
carried nothing with them. They were waited for by the

COMPTON. 171

Bishop of London, who carried them to the Earl of
Dorset's, whose lady furnished them with every thing:
and so they went northward as far as Northampton,
where that earl attended on them with all respect, and
quickly brought a body of horse to serve for a guard to
the Princess. x\nd in a little while a small army was
formed about her, who chose to be commanded by the
Bishop of London; of which, says Bishop Burnet, he
too easily accepted."

On his return to London he was as zealous and instru-
mental as any man in completing the Pievolution. He
first set his hand to the association begun at Exeter. He
waited on the Prince of Orange, on the 21st of December,
at the head of his clergy ; and in their names and his own,
thanked his highness, for his very great and most hazard-
ous undertaking for their deliverance, and the preservation
of the Protestant religion, with the ancient laws and liber-
ties of this nation. He gave his royal highness the Holy
Communion upon the 30th of December, and, upon the
2 9 th of January following, when the house of lords, in a
grand committee, debated the important question, " Whe-
ther the throne, being vacant, ought to be filled by a
regent or a king?" Dr. Compton was one of the two
Bishops, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol, being
the other, who made the majority for filling up the throne
by a king. On the 14th of February, he was again ap-
pointed one of the privy council, and made dean of the
royal chapel ; from both which places King James had
removed him : and afterwards pitched upon by King Wil-
liam, to perform the ceremony of his and Queen Mary's
coronation, upon the 11th of April, 1689.

Archbishop Sancroft being a nonjuror, Bishop Compton
was appointed president of the convocation of 1689. Be-
fore, however, the convocation was convened, a preparatory
step was taken — namely, the appointment of a commission
under the great seal to draw up and prepare matters for
the consideration of the synod. On the 24th of May,
1689, the '' Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant

172 COMPTON.

Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the
Penalties of certain Laws,'' called the Act of Toleration,
received the royal assent. Still many dissenters wished
for a comprehension with the Church. A bill on the
subject had passed the house of lords ; but on its reach-
ing the commons, they considered that the question was
more suitable for a convocation. The lords, therefore,
concurred in an address to the throne to that effect. To
prepare the way, the royal commission was issued,
authorizing certain individuals to meet and prepare alter-
ations in the liturgy and canons, and to consider other
matters connected with the Church. It was dated in
September, 1689.

The commissioners frequently met, but some of the
members who were named absented themselves, especially
Dr. Jane, the regius professor of divinity in Oxford, on
the ground that alterations were not required, and that
the present was not the season for such discussions. The
majority, however, proceeded in the work. The point of
greatest difficulty was that oi re-ordination ; but it was at
last settled by the commissioners that the hypothetical
form should be adopted in the case of the dissenters as in
the case of uncertain baptism, in these words : " If thou
art not already ordained, I ordain thee.'' This would have
satisfied many of the nonconformists. Burnet says, "We
had before us all the books and papers that they had at
any time offered, setting forth their demands ; together
with many advices and propositions which had been made
at several times by most of the best and most learned
of our divines, of which the late most learned Bishop of
Worcester had a great collection : so we prepared a scheme
to be laid before the convocation, but did not think that
we ourselves, much less that any other person, was any
way limited or bound to comply with what we resolved to
propose."

The commissioners were prepared to go great lengths,
and to suggest some unjustifiable alterations in the
liturgy, — (See Life of TiUotson) — but the government per-

COMPTON. 173

ceived that there was no hope of success with the lower
house of convocation, and that any attempt to make altera-
tions would only strengthen the party of those good men who
were nonjurors. In 1690 Compton attended William III.
to the congress at the Hague, wdrere the grand alliance
against France w^as concluded. But, notwithstanding the
zealous part he acted in the revolution, though the metro-
politan see of Canterbury was twice vacant in that reign,
yet he still continued Bishop of London. At the accession
of Queen Anne he was sworn of the privy-council, and was
put in the commission for the union of England and
Scotland. He greatly promoted the act for making effec-
tual the Queen's intention for the Augmentation of the
Maintenance of the Poor Clergy, by enabling her Majesty
to grant the revenues of the first-fruits and tenths. He
maintained an amicable correspondence with foreign Pro-
testants, as appears from letters, afterwards printed at
Oxford, which passed between him and the university of
Geneva in 1706. It was his ultra-protestantism which
rendered Bishop Compton unpopular with the clergy,
and probably hindered his advancement to Canterbury.
Towards the close of his life he was afflicted with the
stone and gout ; which, turning at length to a complication
of distempers, carried him off on the 7th of July, 1713, in
the eighty-first year of his age. His remains were interred
the fifteenth of the same month in the churchyard of
Fulham, according to his particular direction ; for he used
to say, that " the church is for the living, and the church-
yard for the dead." His works are, — 1. A Translation
from the Italian, of the Life of Donna Olympia Maldachini,
who governed the Church during the time of Innocent X.,
which was from the year 1644 to 1655, London, 1667.
2. A Translation from the French, of the Jesuits' In-
trigues, with the private Instructions of that Society to
their Emissaries, 1669. 3. A Treatise of the Holy Com-
munion, 1677. 4. A Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese
of London, concerning Baptism, the Lords Supper, Cate-
chizing, dated April 25, 1679. 5. A Second Letter con-

174 CONANT.

cerning the Half-Communion, Prayers in an Unknown
Tongue, Prayers to Saints, July 6, 1680. 6. A Third
Letter, on Confirmation, and Visitation of the Sick, 1682.

7. A Fourth Letter, upon the 54th Canon, April 6, 1683.

8. A Fifth Letter, upon the 118th Canon, March 19,
1684. 9. A Sixth Letter, upon the 13th Canon, April
18, 1685. — Anonymous Biography. Birch's Tillotson,
Lathbury on Convocation. State Trials.

CONANT, JOHN.

John Conant was born in 1608, at Yeatenton, in Devon-
shire, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford ; where he
was chosen fellow, and proceeded to the degree of D.D.
He was one of the assembly of divines ; in 1649 was cho-
sen rector of his college ; aud in 1654 professor of divinity.
He was vice-chancellor of the university at the period of
the Piestoration, and as such presented a congratulatory
address to Charles II. He was present at the Savoy Con-
ference on the side of the Presbyterians, and afterwards
became a nonconformist.

He continued in this state about eight years. A
Mr. Edmund Trench, who had been determined for the
ministry, and was very willing to have conformed, hut had
some scruples which he could not remove, sent his scru-
ples to Dr. Conant for his resolution. After half a year's
expectation the doctor sent him the following message :
" That upon the most serious thoughts he could hardly
satisfy himself ; and therefore would never persuade any
to conform while he lived." But, after eight years' deli-
beration upon the interesting subject of conformity,
Dr. Conant himself complied, and was re-ordained upon
the 28th of September, in 1670, by Dr. Reynolds, Bishop
of Norwich ; whose daughter he had married in August,
1651, and by whom he had six sons, and as many
daughters.

COOPER. 175

In 1670 he became minister of St. Mary Alderman-
bury, London, which he exchanged for that of All Saints,
Northampton, to which was added the Archdeaconry of
Norwich, and in 1681, a prebend of Worcester. He died in
1693. Six volumes of his sermons have been pubUshed.
— Reid. Wood.

CONCINA, DANIEL

Daniel Concina was born about 1686, in Friuli. He
entered the Dominican order in 1708, and preached with
great applause in the principal towns of Italy. He was
much consuked by Pope Benedict XIV. He died at
Venice on the 2 1st of February, 1756. His principal
works are :

1. Disciplina Apostolica Monastica, 1739, p. 4to.

2. Delia Storia del probabilismo e del rigorismo, disser-
tazioni, con la difesa, 4 vols, in 4to.

3. Commentarius in rescriptum Benedicti XIV. de
jejunii lege, in 4to.

4. Usus contractus trini dissertationibus hist, theolog.
demonstrata adversus mollioris ethices casuistas, in 4to.

5. Theologia Christiana dogmatico-moralis, 12 vols, in
4to.

6. De spectaculis theatralibus, in 4to.

7. De Sacramentali absolutione impertenda. — Moreri.
Biog. Universelle.

COOPER, OR COUPER, THOMAS.

Thomas Cooper was born about the year 1517, at
Oxford, and was educated at Magdalen College, of which
he was first- chosen demy, and afterwards probationer, and
in the year 1540, perpetual fellow. In 1546 he quitted
his fellowship ; and on the accession of Mary, as he was
inclined to the Reformation, he chose physic for his pro-

176 COOPER.

fession, and practised for some time in his native city ;
but on the accession of EHzabeth, he returned to the study
of divinity, and became a distinguished preacher. In the
year 1567 he took his doctor's degree, and about that time
was appointed to the deanery of Christ Church, and for
several years afterwards filled the office of vice-chancellor.
In 1569 he was made Dean of Gloucester; and in 1570
he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. The state of the
church of Lincoln, as described by Archbishop Parker, was
lamentable. There were, he says, only six prebendaries,
and some of them were puritans. In 1584 Cooper was
translated to Winchester. While he was Bishop of Win-
chester he wrote a paper entitled, " Cogitations conceived
for answer to those petitions w^hich were offered to my
lords of the upper house, by certain honourable and
worshipful of the lower house of parliament." The paper
is printed in Strype's Whitgift, but is not worth trans-
cribing here. Cooper was married, and was unfortunate
in his wife. He died in 1594. He wrote the Epitome of
Chronicles from the 17th year after Christ to 1540, and
thence afterwards to the year 1560, in 1560, 4to. The-
saurus Linguse Romanse et Britannicae, &c., et Diction-
arium Historicum et Poeticum, in 1565, folio; A Brief
Exposition of such chapters of the Old Testament as
usually are read in the Church at Common Prayer, on the
Sundays throughout the Year, in 1573, 4to; Twelve
Sermons, on different texts, 1580, 4to; An Admonition to
the People of England ; wherein are answered not only
the Slanderous Untruths reproachfully uttered by Martin
the Libeller, but also many other crimes by some of his
brood, objected generally against all Bishops, and the
chief of the clergy, &c., 1589, 4to. The last-mentioned
work was written in reply to a scurrilous puritanical pam-
phlet, published under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate ;
and provoked answers in two ludicrous pamphlets, entitled
Ha' ye any Work for a Cooper ? and more Work for a
Cooper. — Godwin. Wood. Strype.

CONYBEARE. 177

CONYBEARE, JOHN.

John Conybeare was born at Pinhoe, in Devonshire,
in 1692. He received his education at the grammar
school of Exeter, and next at the college of that name in
Oxford : where, in 1710, he obtained a fellowship. In
1716 he entered into orders, and the same year took his
degree of master of arts. In 1724 he was presented to
the rectory of St. Clement's, in Oxford ; and in 1727 he
obtained great celebrity by a visitation sermon on the
case of subscription. Conybeare's position in this ser-
mon is, that " every one who subscribes the articles of
religion, does thereby engage, not only not to dispute
or contradict them ; but his subscription amounts to an
approbation of, and an assent to, the truth of the doc-
trines therein contained, in the very sense in which
the compilers are supposed to have understood them."
Mr. Conybeare's next publication was an assize sermon,
preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, in 1727, from Ezra
vii. 26, and entitled The Penal sanctions of Laws con-
sidered.

In 1728 he took his degree of B.D. ; and the same
year that of doctor. In 1730 he was chosen rector of his
college ; and in 173^ published his Defence of Revealed
Religion against Tindal's Christianity as old as the Crea-
tion, or the Gospel a Republication of the Law of Nature.
Bishop War burton styles this " one of the best reasoned
books in the world." In this year he was appointed dean
of Christ Church, on which occasion he resigned his
headship. In 1750 he was consecrated Bishop of Bristol,
and would probably have been further advanced had he
not been cut off at Bath, by a complication of disorders,
July 13, 1755. His remains were interred in his cathe-
dral; and afterwards two volumes of his sermons were
published by subscription: but these did not include
twelve discourses, which he printed in his life time. —
Biog. Brit.

VOL. IV. s

178 COSIN.

CORDARA, JULIUS CA'lSATi,

Julius C.f:sAR Cordara was born in Alexandria de la
Paglia, in 17(J4. Being taken early to Home, he was ad-
mitted as a Jesuit in his fourteenth year. He was distin-
guished as a dramatic writer and a satirist, and for his
devotion to the exiled Iritewart family : but he is mentioned
here not as a satirist or play writer, but as the author
of a work which he published in 1750, entitled Historia
Societatis Jesu pars sexta complcctens res gestas sub
Mutio Vitellesco tomus prior. Ho had been appointed
historiographer of the Jesuits in 1742. This was followed
by his Caroli Odoardi Stuartu, Walliae principis, Expe-
ditio in Scotiam, Libris IV. comprehensa. On the disso-
lution of the order of the Jesuits, he retired in 1772 from
Home to Turin, whence, towards the close of his life, he
retired to his native place, where he died in 1790. —
BiorjrapJde Universclle.

COSIN, JOHN.

John Cosin was born at Norwich, November 30, 1594,
and having been educated at the free school in that city,
was entered at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1610, of
which college he became successively scholar and fellow.
When about twenty years of age he was appointed first
librarian, and afterwards secretary to Dr. Overall, Bishop
of Coventry and Lichfield. The title of the bishop of that
see was Coventry and Lichfield till the Restoration, when
the style was changed to Lichfield and Coventry. In 1619
Cosin lost his friend and patron Bishop Overall, but was
soon after appointed domestic chaplain to Dr. Neile, Bishop
of Durham. In those days Bishops regularly observed all
the offices of the Church, and had morning and evening
service duly performed in their chapels. A domestic chap-
lain was therefore necessary to a Bishop, and the office
was not a sinecure. In 1624 Mr. Cosin became a pre-

COSIN. 179

bendary of Durham, and arcLdeacon of the East Riding in
the Church of York. He was a conscientious man. He
could not become a prebendary without doing the duties
of his office ; he would have thought it sinful to attend
the services of the cathedral publicly while in private he
reviled the cathedral service ; to have been regular in his
attendance during his strict residence, but never to have
entered the church on a week-day when his strict residence
was at an end : to have received a full income from his
estates, and to have adorned his own house, leaving only
the house of God unadorned, and the clioir unsupported :
he felt that he was appointed to his prebend not only that
he might have time for study, but thfit he might regulate
the services of the Church so as to make them a model to
other sanctuaries, and to have them conducted with the
grandeur and ceremony which was befitting in such a
temple. He was what was not so rare in those times as
we may be apt to imagine, an honest prebendary or canon,
and consequently he was called a papist.

The maids of honour who attended the Queen Henrietta
Maria, being many of them piously disposed, wished to
employ themselves at their devotions when they saw their
royal mistress so occupied. The good King Charles found
them often reading Romish books of devotion. Instead of
reviling them for their devotional spirit, he more wisely
determined to provide them with a more Catholic manual
than that which they possessed, and employed Archdeacon
Cosin to draw up a collection of devotions. He completed
his work admirably, and in it provided for the observance
of all the canonical hours. The work has lately been
reprinted, and has had for its editor the Venerable Arch-
deacon Harrison, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canter-
bury. But Cosin lived in an age almost as uncharitable
as our own, and his book was both ignorantly and mali-
maliciously assailed ; and with puritanical levity, the
notorious William Prynne entitled it, " Cozen's Cozening
Devotions."

In 1628 Cosins took his deforce of D.D., and was

180 COSIN.

engaged with the other members of the chapter of
Durham, in prosecuting one of the prebendaries, a wicked
fanatic, Peter Sharp by name, for preaching a seditious
sermon in the cathedral. Sharp seems to have been
enraged with his brother prebendaries for endeavouring
to keep their oaths, while he wilfully neglected his own.
The text of his sermon was, Psalm xxxi. 7. I hate them
that hold of sujjerstitlous vanities. From which he took
occasion to make a most bitter invective against some of
the bishops, charging them with no less than popery and
idolatry. Among other virulent expressions he had these,
'* The Whore of Babylon's bastardly brood, doting upon
their mother's beauty, that painted harlot of the Church
of Rome, have laboured to restore her all her robes and
jewels again, especially her looking glass, the mass, in
which she may behold her bravery. The mass coming in,
brings with it an inundation of ceremonies, crosses, and
crucihxes, chalices and images, copes and candlesticks,
tapers and basons, and a thousand such trinkets, which
we have seen in this church, since the Communion table
was turned into an altar. I assure you the altar is an
idol, a damnable idol as it is used. I say they are whores
and whoremongers, they commit spiritual fornication, who
bow their bodies before that idol the altar, &c." For this
sermon he was questioned first at Durham, afterwards in
the high commission court at London ; from whence he
was removed, at his own desire, to that at York, where,
refusing with great scorn, to recant, he was, for his obsti-
nacy, degraded, and by sentence at common law, soon
after dispossessed of his prebend and livings : whereupon
he was supplied with £400 a year by subscription from
the puritan party, which was more than all his prefer-
ments amounted to. As for Dr. Cosin, he was so far from
being Mr. Smart's chief prosecutor (as he avers) that after
lie was questioned in the high commission at Durham, he
never meddled in the matter, save that once he wrote a
letter to the Archbishop of York and the commissioners
in his favour.

COSIN. 181

We almost seem in this description to have an account
of what is passing in our own times. And one cannot but
regret to find that the spirit of puritanism is so unchanged,
so indevout, so bitter, so regardless of truth.

Dr. Cosin was appointed master of Peter-house in
163 1, and dean of Peterborough in 1640. But his
troubles were now to begin, for the low church party had
nearly succeeded, as far as success in such a case is
possible, in ruining the church. On the 10th of Novem-
ber this year, Peter Smart, perceiving the time of revenge
to have come, sent a petition against him to the house of
commons, and in January following Dr. Cosin, having
been previously taken into custody by the sargeant-at-arms,
had the honour of being the first clergyman who by a vote
of the whole house was sequestered from his ecclesiastical
benefices. The low churchmen and dissenters were united
in the house, and were as eager to commence the persecu-
tion of true Christians as ever Bonner or Gardiner could
have been in the reign of Mary. On the 21st of March
they sent up to the House of Lords twenty-one articles of
impeachment against him.

They were carried up by one Mr. Rouse, who intro-
duced them with the following speech. " My lords, I am
commanded by the House of Commons, to present to your
lordships a declaration and impeachment against Dr. Co-
sin, and others, upon the complaint of Mr. Peter Smart ;
which Mr. Smart was a proto-martyr, or first confessor of
note in the late days of persecution. The whole matter is
a tree, whereof the branches and fruit are manifest in the
articles of this declaration." Then follow these articles
against Dr. Cosin.

1. That he was the the first man that caused the com-
munion table in the church of Durham to be removed
and set altar- ways, in the erection and beautifyiug
whereof, he (being then treasurer) expended two hundred
pounds.

2. That he used to officiate at the west side thereof,
turning his back to the people.

VOL IV. T

182 COSIN.

3. That he used extraordinary bowing to it.

4. That he compelled others to do it, using violence
to the persons of them that refused so to do : for instance,
once some omitting it, he comes out of his seat, down
to the seat where they sat, being gentlewomen, called
them whores, and jades, and pagans, and the like un-
seemly words, and rent some of their clothes.

5. That he converted divers prayers in the Book of
Common Prayer into hymns, to be sung in the choir,
and played with the organ, contrary to the ancient custom
of that church.

6. That whereas it had been formerly a custom in that
church, at the end of every sermon, to sing a psalm ; this
custom, when Dr. Cosin came thither, was abrogated, and
instead thereof they sung an anthem in the choir, there
being no psalm sung either at the minister's going up
into the pulpit, or at his coming down.

7. That the first Candlemas day at night, that he had
been in that church, he caused three hundred wax candles
to be set up and lighted in the church at once, in honour
of our lady, and placed three-score of them upon and
about the altar.

8. That in this church there were reliques of divers
images, above which were remaining the ruins of two
seraphims, with the picture of Christ between them,
erected in Queen Mary's time, in the time of popery ; all
which, when Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, were
demolished, by virtue of a commission by her to that
intent granted, which so continued demolished from that
time, till Dr. Cosin came to that church, who, being
treasurer, caused the same to be repaired, and most
gloriously painted.

9. That all the time he was unmarried he wore a cope
of white satin, never officiating in any other, it being
reserved solely for him, no man excepting himself making
use thereof, v»'hich, after marriage, he cast off, and never
after wore.

AG. That there was a knife belonging to the church.,

COSIN. 15<3

kept altogether in the vestry, being put to none but holy-
uses, as cutting the bread in the sacrament, and the
like ; Dr. Cosin refusing to cut the same with any other
but that, thinking all others that were unconsecrated
polluted ; but that, which he putting holiness in, never
termed but the consecrated knife.

11. That in a sermon preached in that church, he did
deliver certain words in disgrace of the reformers of our
Church, for instance, the words were these, " The refor-
mers of this Church, when they abolished the mass, took
away all good order, and, instead of a reformation, made
it a deformation."

1'2. That he seldom or never, in any of his sermons,
stiled the ministers of the word and sacraments by any
other name than priests, nor the communion table by any
other name than altar.

18. That by his appointment there was a cope bought,
the seller being a convicted Jesuit, and afterwards em-
ployed in that church, having upon it the invisible and
incomprehensible Trinity.

14. That whereas it had been formerly a custom in that
church, at five of the clock to have morning prayers read,
winter and summer : this custom, when Dr. Cosin came
thither, was abandoned ; and instead thereof was used
singing and playing on the organs, and some few prayers
read, and this was called first service ; which being ended,
the people departed out of the church, returning at nine
o'clock, and having then morning prayers read unto them,
and this was called second service ; which innovation
being raisliked and complained of by Mr. Justice Hutton,
was reformed.

15. That he framed a superstitious ceremony in light-
ing the tapers which were placed on the altars, which, for
instance, was this : a company of boys that belonged to
the church, came in at the choir door with torches in
their hands lighted, bowing towards the altar at their first
entrance, bowing thrice before they lighted the tapers :
having done, they withdrew themselves, bowing so oft as

184 COSIN.

before, not once turning their back parts towards the
altar, the organs all the time going.

16. That he counselled some young students of the
university to be imitators and practicers of his super-
stitious ceremonies, who, to ingratiate themselves in his
favour, did accordingly ; and being afterwards reproved
for the same by some of their friends, confessed that
Dr. Cosin first induced them to that practice, and encour-
aged them therein.

17. That he used upon communion days to make the
sign of the cross with his finger, both upon the seats
whereon they were to sit, and the cushions to kneel upon,
using some words when he so did.

18. That one Sabbath day there was set up an un-
necessary company of tapers and lights in the church,
which Dr. Hunt, being then dean, fearing they might
give offence, since they were then unnecessary, sent his
man to pull them dow^n, who did so ; but Dr. Cosin being
thereat aggrieved, came to the fellow, and there miscalled
him in a most uncivil manner, and began to beat him in
the public view of the congregation to the great disturb-
ance of the same.

19. That the dean and chapter of that church, whereof
Dr. Cosin was one, with many others, being invited to
dinner in the town of Durham, Dr. Cosin then and
there spake words derogating from the King's preroga-
tive : the words were these : " The King hath no more
power over the Church than the boy that rubs my horse-
heels."

20. That there being many of the canons of the said
church present at that time, amongst the rest there was
one took more notice of his words than the rest, and
acquainted one of his fellow-canons with them when he
came home. This canon, being a friend to Dr. Cosin,
told the doctor that such a man exclaimed of him, and
charged him with words that he should speak at such a
time ; the doctor presently sends for him, and when he
came into the house the doctor desires him to follow him

COSIN. 185

into an inner room, who did so ; but so soon as he came
in the doctor shuts the door, and sets both his hands upon
him, calHng him rogue and rascal, and many other names,
insomuch that the man, fearing he would do him a mis-
chief, cried out ; Mrs. Cosin coming in, endeavoured to
appease her husband, and holding his hands, the other
ran away.

'21. That the doctor did seek many unjust ways to
ensnare this man, that so he might take a just occasion to
put him out of his place ; but none of them taking effect,
he put him out by violence, having no other reason why
he did so, but because he had no good voice, when he had
served the place two years before Dr. Cosin came thither :
for instance of which unjust ways to ensnare this man,
Dr. Cosin hired a man and a woman to pretend a desire
of matrimony, and to offer a sum of money to this petty
canon to contract matrimony between them in a private
chamber, so thereupon to take advantage of his revenge
upon him. This plot being confessed by the parties
to be first laid by Dr. Cosin, and that they were his
instruments.

Besides the several particulars mentioned in these
articles, Mr. Fuller informs us that Dr. Cosin was accused
of having bought a cope with the Trinity, and God the
Father, in the figure of an old man ; another with a
crucifix, and the image of Christ, with a red beard, and
a blue cap. And to have made an anthem to be sung,
of the three Kings of Collen, by the names of Gasper,
Balthazar, and Melchior.

To these articles Dr. Cosin put in his answer upon
oath before the House of Lords. But seeing afterwards
the substance of them pubUshed in Mr. Fuller's Eccle-
siastical History, he wrote from Paris a letter to Mr. War-
ren and Dr. Reves, in bis own vindication, dated April 6,
1658, wherein he declares, as he had done before the
Lords,

1. That the communion table in the church of Durham
(which in the Bill of Complaint and Mr. Fuller's history

T U

186 COSIN.

is said to be the marble altar, with cherubims) was not
set up by him [Dr. Cosin,] but by the dean and chapter,
(whereof Mr. Smart himself was one) many years before
Mr. Cosin became prebendary of that church, or ever saw
the country.

'^. That by the public accounts which are there regis-
tered, it did not appear to have cost above the tenth part
of what is pretended, appurtenances and all.

3. That likewise the copes used in that church w^ere
brought in thither long before his [Dr. Cosin's] time, and
when Mr. Smart the complainant was prebendary there,
who also allowed his part (as he [Dr. Cosin] was ready to
prove by the Act book) of the money that they cost, for
they cost but little.

4. That as he never approved the picture of the Trinity,
or the image of God the Father, in the figure of an old
man, or otherwise to be made or placed any w^here at all ;
so he was well assured that there were none such (nor to
his own knowledge or hearsay ever had been) put upon
any cope that was used there. One there was that had
the story of the Passion embroidered upon it all, but the
cope that he used to wear, when at any time he attended
the communion service, was of plain white satin only
without any embroidery upon it at all.

5. That what the Bill of Complaint, called the image
of Christ, with a blue cap, and a golden beard, (Mr. Ful-
ler's history says it was red, and that it w'as set upon one
of the copes) was nothing else but the top of Bishop Hat-
field's tomb (set up in the church, under a side-arch
there, two hundred years before Dr. Cosin was born)
being a little portraiture, not appearing to be above ten
inches long, and hardly discernable to the eye what figure
it is, for it stands thirty feet from the ground.

6. That by the local statutes of that Church (whereunto
Mr. Smart was sworn, as w^ell as Dr. Cosin) the treasurer
was to give order, that provision should every year be
made of a sufficient number of wax lights for the service of
the choir, during all the winter time ; which statute he

COSIN. 187

[Dr. Cosin] observed when he wasrehosen into that office,
and had order from the dean and chapter, bj capitular
act, to do it ; jet upon the communion table they that
used to light the candles, never set more than two fair
candles, with a few small sizes near to them, which they
put there of purpose, that the people all about might have
the better use of them for singing the psalms, and read-
ing the lessons out of the Bibles : but two hundred was a
greater number than they used all the church over, either
upon Candlemas night, or any other.

7. That he never forbad (nor any body else that he knew)
the singing of the (metre) psalms in the church, w^iich
he used to sing daily there himself, with other company,
at morning prayer. But upon Sundays and holy-days, in
the choir, before the sermon, the creed was sung, (and
that plainly for every one to understand) as is appointed
in the communion book ; and after the sermon, was sung
a part of a psalm, or some other anthem taken out of the
Scripture, and first signified to the people where they
might find it.

8. That so far was he from making any anthem to be
sung of the three Kings of Collen, as that he made it,
when he first saw it, to be torn in pieces, and he himself
cut it out of the old song books belonging to the choristers'
school, with a penknife that lay by, at his very first
coming to that college. But he was sure that no such
anthem had been sung in the choir during all his time of
attendance there, nor (for ought that any of the eldest
persons of the church and town could tell, or ever heard
to the contrary,) for fifty or three- score years before, or
more .

9. That there was indeed an ordinary knife, provided
and laid ready among other things belonging to the
administration of the communion, for the cutting of the
bread, and divers other uses in the church vestry. But
that it was ever consecrated, or so called, otherwise than
as Mr. Smart, and some of his followers had, for their
pleasure, put that appellation upon it ; he [Dr. Cosin]

188 COSIN.

never heard, nor believed any body else had, that lived
at Durham. The rest of the articles mentioned above,
Mr. Smart could not prove, and Dr. Cosin gave a very
satisfactory answer to them, remaining upon the Rolls of
Parliament.

The whole of this statement has been given to confirm
what has been said before of the unchanged spirit of
puritanism. Dr. Cosin was dismissed by the Lords
upon his putting in bail for his appearance, but he was
not summoned to appear again. But the evil spirit of
puritanism is not easily laid. Upon amotion made in the
House of Commons that he had enticed a young scholar
to popery he was again committed to the sargeantat-arms,
to attend daily till the house should call him to a hearing.
The low churchmen and puritans both in the church and
out of it, knew very well that all this was a falsehood, and
that in fact he had when vice-chancellor of Cambridge
severely punished that very scholar by making him recant,
and by expelling him the university. But the end was
supposed to justify the means, and Dr. Cosin was com-
pelled to attend the house daily till the house should call
him to a hearing, which hearing he did not obtain till after
fiftydays' imprisonment, during which time he had to pay
twenty shillings a day. He was of course acquitted, but
received no reparation for the wrong done to him. It is
to be hoped that puritanism may not again obtain the
upper hand, and that the House of Commons may never
again interfere in the affairs of religion. An attempt is
not unfrequently made to do so, but the ignorance dis-
played by the leading members of the honourable house is
not very creditable to the country it represents.

As Cosin had the honour to be the first of the clergy
sequestered, so was he the first to be turned out. What
the puritans could not do by law they effected by force ;
he was ejected from his mastership in 1642, having
exasperated the puritans and their friends, by sending
the plate of the university to the King at York. Being
deprived of all his preferments, he left the kingdom

COSIN. 189

and proceeded to Paris, where he formed a congregation,
and had several discussions with the Jesuits and Romish
priests.

At the restoration of Charles II., Dr. Cosin returned to
England, and took possession of all his preferments ; but
before the year was out, was raised to the see of Durham,
being consecrated upon the 2nd of December, 1660. As
soon as he could get down to his diocese, he set about
reforming many abuses, that had crept in there during
the late anarchy ; and distinguished himself greatly by his
charity and public spirit. He laid out a great share of
his large revenues in repairing or re-building the several
edifices belonging to the bishopric of Durham, which had
eitlier been demolished, or neglected, during the civil
wars. He repaired, for instance, the castle at Bishop "s
Auckland, the chief country seat of the Bishops of Dur-
ham; that at Durham, which he greatly enlarged ; and the
bishop's house at Darlington, then very ruinous. He also
enriched his new chapel at Auckland, and that at Durham,
with several pieces of gilt plate, books, and other costly
ornaments; the charge of all which buildings, repairs, and
ornaments, amounted, according to Dr. Smith, to near
sixteen thousand pounds ; but as others say, to no less
than twenty-six thousand pounds. He likewise built and
endowed two hospitals ; the one at Durham for eight poor
people, the other at Auckland for four. The annual revenue
of the former was seventy pounds, that of the latter thirty
pounds : and near his hospital at Durham, he re-built the
school-houses, which cost about three hundred pounds.
He also built a library near the castle of Durham, the
charge whereof, with the pictures with which he adorned
it, amounted to eight hundred pounds ; and gave books
thereto to the value of two thousand pounds, as also an
annual pension of twenty marks for ever to a librarian.
But his generosity in this way was not confined within
the precincts of his diocese. He re-built the east end of
the chapel at Peter-house, in Cambridge, which cost three
hundred and twenty pounds; and gave books to the library

190 COSIN.

of that college to tbe value of one thousand pounds. He
founded eight scholarships in the same university ; viz :
five in Peter-house of ten pounds a year each, and three in
Caius College of twenty nobles a piece per annum : both
which, together with a provision of eight pounds yearly,
to the common chest of those two colleges respectively,
amounted to two thousand five hundred pounds.

It is indeed impossible to recount all the numerous
benefactions of this generous Bishop. He gave to the
cathedral at Durham a fair carved lectern, and litany-desk,
with a large scalloped silver patten, gilt, for the use of the
communicants there, which cost forty-five pounds. Upon
the new building of the Bishop's court, exchequer, and
chancery, and towards the erecting of two session- houses
at Durham, he gave a thousand pounds. Moreover, he
gave towards the redemption of Christian captives, at
Algiers, five hundred pounds. Towards the relief of the
distressed loyal party in England, eight hundred pounds.
For repairing the banks in Howdenshire, a hundred
marks. Towards the repair of St. Paul's cathedral, in
London, fifty pounds. By his will he bequeathed to the
poor of his hospitals at Durham and Auckland, to be dis-
tributed at his funeral, six pounds. To the poor people
of the country, coming to his funeral, twenty pounds.
To poor prisoners detained for debt, in the gaols of
Durham, York, Peterborough, Cambridge, and Norwich,
fifty pounds. To the poor people within the precints of
the cathedral at Norwich, and within the parish of
St. Andrew's there, in which he was born and educated in
his minority, twenty pounds. To the poor of Durham,
Auckland, Darlington, Stockton, Gateshead, and Bran-
speth, (all in the bishopric of Durham), thirty pounds.
To the poor in the parishes of Chester in the Street,
Houghton-le-Spring, North-Allerton, Creike, and Howden,
(all lordships belonging to the Bishops of Durham) forty
pounds. Towards the re-building of St. Pauls cathedral
in London, when it should be raised five yards from the
ground, a hundred pounds. To the cathedral of Norwich,

COSIN. 101

whereof the one half to be bestowed on a marble tablet,
with an inscription, in memory of Dr. John Overall, some
time Bishop there, (whose chaplain he had been) the rest
for providing some useful ornaments for the altar, forty
pounds. Towards the re-edifying of the north and south
sides of the College chapel at Peter-house, in Cambridge,
suitable to the east and w^est ends, already by him per-
fected, two hundred pounds. Towards the new building
of the chapel at Emanuel College, in Cambridge, fifty
pounds. To the children of Mr. John Heyward, late
prebendary of Lichfield, as a testimony of his gratitude
to their deceased father, who, in his lordship's younger
years, placed him with his uncle, Bishop Overall, twenty
pounds a piece. To the dean and chapter of Peter-
borough, to be employed for the use of the poor in that
town, a hundred pounds. To the poor of Durham, Bran-
speth, and Bishop's Auckland, to be distributed as his two
daughters (the lady Gerard, and the lady Burton) should
think best, a hundred pounds.

This great and good man died in 1672. Besides the
benefactions alluded to above, his will is remarkable as
containing his profession of faith ; wherein, after repeat-
ing the substance of the Apostles' and Nicene creeds, he
condemns and rejects whatsoever heresies or schisms, the
ancient catholic and universal Church of Christ with an
unanimous consent, had rejected and condemned ; to-
gether with all the modern fautors of the same heresies ;
sectaries, and fanatics, who, being carried on with an
evil spirit, do falsely give out, they are inspired of God.
As the anabaptists, new independents, and presbyterians
of our country, a kind of men hurried away with the
spirit of malice, disobedience, and sedition. " Moreover,
(adds he) I do profess, with holy asseveration, and from
my very heart, that I am now, and ever have been from
my youth, altogether free mid averse from the corruptions
and impertinent new-fangled, or papistical superstitions
and doctrines, — long since introduced, contrary to the
Holy Scripture, and the rules and customs of the ancient

192 COSIN.

Fathers. But in what part of the world soever any
Churches are extant, bearing the name of Christ, and pro-
fessing the true catholic faith and religion, worshipping
and calling upon God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, with one heart and voice, if I be now hindered
actually to join with them, either by distance of countries,
or variance amongst men, or by any hindrance what-
soever ; yet always in my mind and affection I join and
unite wdth them ; which I desire to be chiefly understood
by protestants, and the best Reformed Churches, &c."
This part of his Will was written in Latin, and the latter
part containing his benefactions, in English.

How accurately he understood the points of difference
between the Church of England and the Church of Rome,
may be seen from the following paper, published by
Dr. Hickes in the Appendix to his "Letters." "We that
profess the catholic faith and religion in the Church of
England do not agree with the Roman Catholics in any
thiug w^hereunto they now endeavour to convert us. But
we totally dissent from them (as they do from the ancient
catholic Church) in these points.

J . That the Church of Rome is the mother and mistress
of all the other churches in the world.

2. That the Pope of Rome is the vicar-general of Christ :
or that he hath an universal jurisdiction over all Chris-
tians that shall be saved.

3. That either the Synod of Trent was a general council ;
or that all the canons thereof are to be received as matters
of catholic faith, under pain of damnation.

4. That Christ hath instituted seven true and proper
Sacraments in the New Testament, neither more nor less,
all conferring grace, and all necessary to salvation.

5. That the priests offer up our Saviour in the mass, as
a real, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and
the dead, and that whosoever believes it not, is eternally
damned.

6. That in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole
substance of bread is converted into the substance of

COSIN. 195

Clirist's Body, and the whole substance of wine into His
Blood, so truly and properly, as that after consecration
there is neither any bread nor wine remaining there, which
they call transubstantiation, and impose upon all persons,
under pain of damnation to be believed.

7. That the Communion under one kind is sufficient
and lawful (notwithstanding the institution of Christ
under both), and that whosoever believes or holds other-
wise is damned.

8. That there is a purgatory after this life, wherein the
souls of the dead are punished, and from whence they are
fetched out by the prayers and offerings of the living : and
that there is no salvation possibly to be had by any that
will not believe as much.

9. That all the old saints departed, and all those dead
men and women, whom the pope hath of late canonized
for saints, or shall hereafter do so, whosoever they be,
are and ought to be invocated by the religious prayers
and devotion of all persons, and that they who do not
believe this as an article of the catholic faith cannot be
saved.

10. That the relics of all these true or reputed saints
ought to be religiously worshipped ; and that whosoever
holdeth the contrary is damned.

11. That the images of Christ and the blessed Virgin,
and of the other saints, ought not only to be had and
retained, but likewise to be honoured and worshipped,
according to the use and practices of the Roman
Church ; and that this is to be believed as of necessity
to salvation.

1'-^, That the power and use of indulgences, as they are
now practised in the Church of Rome, both for the living
and the dead, is to be received and held of all, under pain
of eternal perdition.

13. That all the ceremonies used by the Roman Church
in the administration of the Sacrament (such as are spittle
and salt in baptism ; the five crosses upon the altars, and

VOL. IV. u

194 COSIN.

Sacrament of the Eucharist ; the holding of that Sacra-
ment over the priest's head to be adored ; the exposing of
it in their churches to be worshipped by the people ; the
circumgcstation and carrying of it abroad in procession
upon their Corpus Christi day, and to their sick for the
same ; the oil and chrism in confirmation ; the anointing
of the ears, the eyes and noses, the hands and reins of
those that are ready to die ; the giving of an empty
chalice and paten to them that are to be ordained priests,
and many others of this nature, now in use with them)
are of necessity to salvation, to be approved and admitted
by all other Churches.

14. That all the ecclesiastical observations and consti-
tutions of the same church (such as are their laws of for-
bidding all priests to marry ; the appointing several orders
of monks, friars, and nuns in the church ; the service of
God in an unknown tongue ; the saying of a number of
Ave Marias by tale upon their chaplets ; the sprinkling
of themselves and the dead bodies with holy water, as
operative and effectual to the remission of venial sins ;
the distinctions of meats to be held for true fasting ;
the religious consecration and incensing of images ; the
baptizing of bells ; the dedicating of divers holidays
for the immaculate Conception, and the bodily Assump-
tion of the blessed Virgin; and for Corpus Christi, or
transubstantiation of the Sacrament ; the making of the
apocryphal books to be as canonical as any of the rest of
the holy and undoubted Scriptures ; the keeping of those
Scriptures from the free use and reading of the people ;
the approving of their own Latin translation only, and
divers other matters of the like nature) are to be approved,
held, and believed as needful to salvation, and that, who- •
ever approves them not, is out of the catholic Church,
and must be damned.

All which in their several respects, we hold some to be
pernicious, some unnecessary, many false, and many fond,
and none of them to be imposed upon any church, or any

COSIN. 195

Christian, as the Roman catholics do upon all Christians,
and all churches whatsoever, for matters needful to be
approved for eternal salvation.

OUR AGREEMENTS.

If the Roman Catholics would make the essence of
their Church (as we do ours) to consist in these following
points, we are at accord with them. In the reception and
believing of :

1. All the two and twenty canonical books of the Old
Testament, and the twenty-seven of the New, as the only
foundation and perfect rule of our faith.

2. All the apostolical and ancient creeds, especially
those which are commonly called the Apostles' Creed, the
Nicene Creed, and the Creed of St. Athanasius, all which
are clearly deduced out of the Scriptures.

3. All the decrees of faith and doctrines set forth, as
well in the first four general councils, as in all other
councils, which those first four approved and confirmed,
and in the fifth and sixth general councils besides (than
which we find no more to be general), and in all the
following councils that be thereunto agreeable ; and in all
the anathemas or condemnations given out by those
councils against heretics, for the defence of the Catholic
faith.

4. The unanimous and general consent of the ancient
catholic Fathers, and the universal Church of Christ, in
the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, and the col-
lection of all necessary matters of faith from them during
the first six hundred years, and downwards to our own
days.

5. In acknowledgment of the Bishop of Rome, if he
would rule and be ruled by the ancient canons of the
Church, to be the patriarch of the West, by right of
ecclesiastical and imperial constitution, in such places
where the kings and governors of those places had

196 COSIK

received him, and found it behooveful for them to make
use of his jurisdiction, without any necessary dependence
upon him by divine right.

6. In the reception and use of the two blessed Sacra-
ments by our Saviour ; in the confirmation of those
persons that are to be strengthened in their Christian
faith, by prayer and imposition of hands, according to the
examples of the holy Apostles and ancient Bishops of the
catholic Church ; in the public and solemn benediction
of persons, that are to be joined together in haly matri-
mony ; in public or private absolution of penitent sinners;
in the consecrating of Bishops, and the ordaining of
priests and deacons for the service of God in His Church,
by a lawful succession ; and in visiting the sick, by pray-
ing for them, and administering the blessed Sacrament to
them, together with a final absolution of them from their
repented sins.

7. In commemorating at the Eucharist the sacrifice of
Christ's Body and Blood, once truly offered for us.

8. In acknowledging His sacramental, spiritual, true and
Keal Presence there to the souls of all them that come
faithfully and devoutly to receive Him, according to His
own institution in that holy Sacrament.

9. In giving thanks to God for them, that are departed
out of this life in the true faith of Christ's catholic
Church, and in praying to God that they may have a
joyful resurrection, and a perfect consummation of bliss,
both in their bodies and souls, in His eternal Kingdom of
Glory.

10. In the historical and moderate use of painted and
true stories, either for memory or ornament, where there
is no danger to have them abused or worshipped with
religious honour.

11. In the use of indulgences, or abating the rigour
of the canons, imposed upon offenders according to
their repentance, and their want of ability to undergo
them.

COSIN. 197

12. In the administration of the two Sacraments, and
other rites of the Church, with ceremonies of decency and
order, according to the precept of the Apostle, and the
free practice of the ancient Christians.

13. In observing such hoHdays and times of fasting,
as were in use in the first ages of the Church, or after-
wards received upon just grounds, by public and lawful
authority.

14. Finally, in the reception of all ecclesiastical consti-
tutions and canons made for the ordering of our Church ;
or others, which are not repugnant either to the Word of
God ; or the power of kings, or the laws established by
right authority in any nation.

Besides the collection of Private Devotions, he pub-
lished " A Scholastical History of the Canon of the
Holy Scripture : or. The certain and indubitable Books
thereof, as they are received in the Church of England."
Loudon, 1657, 4to, reprinted in 1672. The history
is deduced from the time of the Jewish Church, to the
year 1546, that is, the time when the council of Trent
corrupted, and made unwarrantable additions to, the
ancient canon of the Holy Scriptures. Consequently
it was directed against the papists, and was written by
the author during his exile at Paris. He dedicated it to
Dr. M. Wrenn, Bishop of Ely, then a prisoner in the
tower. Dr. P. Gunning had the care of the edition.
Since the Bishop s decease the following books and tracts
of his have been published.

1. "A letter to Dr. Collins, concerning the Sabbath,"
dated from Peter-house, Jan. 24, 1635. In which, speak-
ing first of the morality of the Sabbath, he afiBrms,
that the keeping of that particular day was not moral,
neither by nature binding all men, nor by precept bind-
ing any other men but the Jews, nor them further than
Christ's time. But then, adds he, whether one day
of seven, at least, do not still remain immutably to be
kept by us Christians, that have God's will and ex-
u2

198 COSIN.

ample before, and by yirtue of the rules of reason and
religion, is the question ? And for this he decides in the
affirmative. Then he proves, that the keeping of our
Sunday is immutable, as being grounded upon divine
institution, and apostolical tradition, which he confirms
by several instances. Next he shews, that the schoolmen
were the first who began to dispute, or deny, this day to
be of apostolical institution, on purpose to set up the
pope's power, to whom, they said, it belongeth, either to
change or abrogate the day. Towards the end, he lay©
down these three positions against the puritans : 1. " The
observation of the Sunday in every week is not commanded
us by the fourth commandment, as they say it is. 2. Nor
is our Sunday to be observed according to the rule of the
fourth commandment, as they say it is. 3. Nor hath it
the qualities and conditions of the Sabbath annexed to it,
as they say it hath." 2. There is published, " A Letter
from Cosin to Mr. Cordel, dated Paris, Feb. 7, 1650."
It is printed at the end of a pamphlet, entitled, " The
Judgment of the Church of England, in the case of lay-
baptism, and of dissenters' baptism." 3. Kegni Anglia?
Eeligio Catholica, prisca, casta, defoecata : omnibus Chris-
tianis Monarchis, Principibus, Ordinibus, ostensa. anno
1652., i.e. A Short Scheme of the ancient and pure
doctrine and discipline of the Church of England ; written
at the request of Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of
Clarendon. 4. Historia Transubstantationis Papalis. Cui
praemittitur, atque opponitur, turn S. Scripturas, turn
Veterum Patrum, & Pieformatarum Ecclesiarurn Doctrina
Catholica, de Sacris Symbolis, & praesentia Christi in
Sacramento Eucharistse, i. e. The History of Popish Tran-
substantiation, &c., written by the author at Paris, for the
use of some of his countrymen, who were frequently
attacked upon that point by the Papists. It was pub-
lished by Dr. Durell, at London, 1675, 8vo, and translated
into English in 1676, by Luke de Beaulieu, 8vo. There
is a second part still in manuscript. 5. "The differences

COTELERIUS. 199

in the chief points of religion, between the Roman Catholics
and us of the Church of England; together with the agree-
ments which ^Ye, for our parts, profess, and are ready to
embrace, if thej, for theirs, were as ready to accord with
us in the same. Writteu to the Countess of Peterborough."
6. " Notes on the Book of Common Prayer." Published
by Dr. William Nicholls, at the end of his Comment on
the Book of Common Prayer, Lond. 1710, folio. 7. "Ac-
count of a Conference in Paris, between Cyril, Archbishop
of Trapezond, and Dr John Cosin." Printed in the same
book.

The following pieces were also written by Bishop
Cosin, but never printed. 1. " An Answer to a Popish
Pamphlet, pretending, that St. Cyprian was a Papist."
2. "An Answer to four queries of a Roman Catholic, about
the Protestant Religion." 3. "An Answer to a paper
delivered by a Popish Bishop to the Lord Inchequin."
4. " Annales Ecclesiastici, imperfect." 5. "x\n Answer to
Father Robinsons Papers, concerning the validity of the
Ordinations of the Church of England." 6. " Historia
Conciliorum, imperfect." 7. " Against the forsakers of the
Church of England, and their seducers in this time of her
trial." 8. Chronologia Sacra, imperfect. 9. "A Treatise
concerning the abuse of Auricular Confession in the
Church of Rome."

His whole works have been collected for the first time
in the Anglo-Catholic Library. — Smith. Basire. Hickes.
Hutchinson s History of Durham. Fuller. Walker.

COTELERIUS, JOHN BAPTIST.

John Baptist Cotelerius, a learned Frenchman, was
born at Nismes, in 1627. He very early displayed great
abilities in the knowledge of the learned languages, and at
the age of twelve was able to construe the New Testament
in Greek, and the Old in Hebrew, with great ease. In
1647 he took his B.D. degree. In 1649 he was elected a
fellow of the Sorbonne. The Greek fathers were his chief

200 COTELERIUS.

study : he read their works both printed and manuscript
with great exactness ; made notes upon them ; and trans-
lated some of them into Latin. In the year 1660, he
published four Homilies of St. Chrysostom upon the
psalms, and his Commentary upon Daniel, with a Latin
translation and notes. Then he set about his Collection
of those fathers who lived in the apostolic age ; which he
published in two volumes folio at Paris, in the year 1672,
all reviewed and corrected from several manuscripts, with a
Latin translation and notes. The editor's notes in this
performance are very learned, and very curious : they
explain the difficulties in the Greek terms, clear up
several historical passages, and set matters of belief and
discipline in a better light. He had published this work
some years sooner, but he was interrupted by being
pitched upon with Monsieur Du Cange to review the
manuscripts in the King's library. This task he entered
upon by Colbert's order in 1667, and was five years in
performing it.

In the year 1 676, he was made Greek professor in the
Royal Academy at Paris, which post he maintained during
his life with the highest reputation. He had the year
before published the first volume of a work, entitled
Monumenta Ecclesias Grsecse, which was a collection of
Greek tracts out of the King's, and Monsieur Colbert's
libraries, and had never been published before. He
added a Latin translation and notes ; which, though not
so large as those upon the Patres Apostolici, are said to
be very curious. The first volume was printed in the
year 1675, the second in 1681, and the third in 1686.
He intended to have continued this work if he had lived.
Upon the third of August, 1686, he was seized with an
inflammatory disorder in his breast, which required him
to be let blood : but Cotelerius had such a dislike to this
operation, that, sooner than undergo it, he dissembled his
illness, when, at last he consented, it was too late, for he
died upon the 10th of the same month, when he was not
sixty years of age. — Moreri. Baluzius.

COURAYER. 201

COURATEB, PETER FRANCIS.

Peter Francis Courayer was born at Rouen, in Nor-
mandy, where his father was president of the Court of
Justice, November 17, 1681 ; received his first scientific
instruction at Vernon ; came in his 1 4th year to the
College of Beauvais at Paris ; and in the same place
entered two years later the congregation of St. Genevieve.
There he honourably distinguished himself by his talents
and scientific efforts, so that in 1706 he was appointed
presbyter of his congregation, and also professor of theo-
logy. After he had performed the duties of this office up
to August, 1711, the oversight of the rich library of the
abbey was given into his hands.

While canon and librarian of the Augustinian abbey of
St. Genevieve, he projected his great work, A Dissertation
on the Validity of the Ordinations of the English, and of
the Succession of the Bishops of the Anglican Church.
The origin of this work is as follows : having been engaged
in reading Abbe Renaudot's " Memoire sur la validite des
Ordinations des Anglois," inserted in Abbe Gould s " La
veritable croyance de I'eglise Catholique," he was induced
to enter into a farther examination of that subject. Ac-
cordingly he drew up a memoir upon it, for his own satis-
faction only, but which grew insensibly into a treatise :
and at the instance of some friends to whom it was com-
municated, he was at length prevailed with to consent to
its publication. He therefore made the usual application
for permission to print it ; and obtained the approbation
of Mons. Arnaudin, the royal licenser of the press. Some
persons, however, afterwards found means to prevail on
the chancellor to refuse to affix the seal to the approbation
of the licenser. Terms were proposed to Father Courayer,
to which he could not accede, and he gave up all thoughts
of pubhshing. Some of his friends, however, being in
possession of a copy, resolved to print it : and this obliged
him to acquiesce in the publication. When he first wrote
his treatise, all his materials were taken from printed

202 COURAYER.

authorities, and he had no acquaintance or correspondence
in England. But sundry difficulties, which occurred to
him in the course of his inquiries, suggested to him the
propriety of writing to England, in order to obtain clearer
information on some points ; and knowing that a corres-
pondence had been carried on between Dr. Wake, then
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Dupin, on the project
of re-uniting the Churches of England and France, he
took the liberty, in 1721, although entirely unknown to
that prelate, to desire his information respectiug some
particulars. The Archbishop answered his inquiries with
great readiness, candour, and politeness, and many letters
passed between them on this occasion. Father Courayer's
book was at length published in 1723, in two volumes
small 8vo.

The intention of Courayer in this work is thus described
by himself in his preface, and what he designed he ably
accomplished. " In order," he says, " to treat this subject
with some method, I shall first set forth the chauges that
have happened in the Church of England with regard to
the succession of their Bishops, and their ordination. I
shall shew afterwards that notwithstanding the changes
introduced by Edward the Sixth in the Ordinal, there
was nothing essential omitted in the consecration of
Parker, who is the origin and source of the English
ministry, such as it subsists at this day. In the chapters
that follow, I shall prove the truth of Barlow's consecra-
tion, upon which that of Parker depends ; and I shall
endeavour to refute all the arguments which are brought
against it. In fine, in discussing some general difficulties
which are made use of to attack the validity of the new
ordinations, I shall endeavour to lay down principles and
maxims which may serve not only to establish the good-
ness of the English ordinations, but also to the decision
of other facts that might happen of the same kind. I
shall moreover examine with some care, what authority a
national Church may challenge in what concerns the
administration of the Sacraments : and 1 hope to make it

COURAYER. 203

evident, that the Church of England has not exceeded her
powers in those alterations she thought it right to make
in her rites. By the examination of all these facts, and
of these principles, it will be easy to decide what ought to
be thought of the practice of many Bishops, who re-ordain
the English ; and I think men will be easily convinced
by the proofs we have produced, that this custom is con-
trary to all the received maxims of the Church in the
matter of re-ordinations, and that it is founded only upon
chimerical facts, upon opinions that are abandoned, and
and upon doubts that have no foundation."

The value of this work is very great. It is to be
remembered that it was written by a Romanist, not with
a view of defending the Church of England, but with the
design of establishing a position for the practice of his
own communion. The question which Courayer discussed
professedly, was this, whether clergymen of the Church
of England conforming to the Church of Rome should be
re-ordained, and whether in the event of the Church of
England forming an alliance with the Church of Rome,
the validity of her orders should be recognized. This
double question Courayer answered in the affirmative.
On other points, such as the justifiableness of our reform-
ation, and our keeping ourselves separate from Rome,
he takes part against us. The one point to which he
addresses himself, however, is so ably argued, that the very
fact of his disagreeing with us on the other points makes
his arguments of greater weight. And the defence of the
Church of England, on points whereupon he ventures to
censure her is easy. There is no one point on which
Romish controversialists have more frequently resorted to
evil speaking, lying and slandering, than upon that which
relates to our orders, and it is not wonderful that their
conduct should have disgusted an honest mind like that
of Courayer.

Courayer's work was translated into English by the
Rev. Daniel Williams, and published at London in one
volume 8vo, under the title : "A Defence of the vahdity

204 COURAYER.

of the English Ordinations, and of the Succession of the
Bishops in the Church of England : together with proofs
justifying the facts advanced in this treatise." Father
Courayer's work was immediately attacked by several
popish wTiters, particularly by father le Quien and father
Hardouin. Rutin 1726 he published, in four volumes
12mo, " Defense de la Dissertation sur la validite des
Ordinations des Anglois, centre les differentes responses
qui y ont ete faites. Avec les preuves justificatives des
faits avencez dans cet ouvrage. Par lAuteur de la Dis-
sertation." An English translation of this also was after-
wards published at London, in two volumes 8vo, under
the following title : " A Defence of the Dissertation on
the validity of the Enghsh Ordinations," &c.

But father Courayer was not only attacked by those
writers who published books against him : he was like-
wise censured both by the mandates, and by the assem-
blies of several bishops, and particularly by Cardinal De
Noailles, x\rchbishop of Paris, and the Bishop of Mar-
seilles. During this time he retired from Paris into the
country, but was recalled by his superior to reside at the
priory of Hennemonte, four leagues from Paris. Here he
received a diploma for the degree of doctor in divinity
from the university of Oxford, dated August 28, 1727 :
and from hence he returned his thanks to the university
in an elegant Latin letter, dated Dec. 1, the same year,
both of which he afterwards printed. But though this
book had procured this honourable testimonial of his merit
from an English university, his enemies in Fiance were not
satisfied with publishing censures and issuing episcopal
mandates against him, but proceeded to measures for
compelling him to recant what he had written, and to
sign such submissions as were inconsistent with the
dictates of his conscience. In this critical state of things,
he resolved to quit his native country, and to seek an
asylum in England. He was the more inclined to
embrace this resolution, in consequence of the warm and
friendly invitations which he had received from Arch-

COURAYER. 205

bishop Wake, who had conceived a great regard for him.
After having spent four months very disagreeably at
Hennemonte, he obtained leave to remove to Senlis ; but,
instead of going thither, he took the road to Calais in
the common stage coach, from thence got safely over to
Dover, and arrived in London on the Qith of January,
1728.

On his landing at Greenwich Viscount Perceval, after-
wards Earl of Egmont, sent his coach with six horses to
convey him to his house, which he desired the doctor to
consider, and to use, as his own : after dinner his lord-
ship made him a handsome present. Next day Dr. Wake,
then Archbishop of Canterbury, had him to dine at his
palace at Lambeth, and made him a like present. Bishop
Hare, Bishop Sherlock, and several other prelates, treated
him with similar generosity ; and soon after his arrival,
the Marquis of Blandford made him a present of fifty
pounds, through the hands of Nicholas Mann, Esq., after-
wards master of the Charter-house.

It is pleasing to be able to say with certainty, to the
honour of this nation, that very many of the tables and
houses of the great were generously opened for the recep-
tion of P. Courayer, from the first moment of his arrival
in England. He secured his future constant welcome by
his own merits, and an instructive, entertaining, and in-
offensive manner of conversation.

He got early into the habit of living, for months toge-
ther, in one or other of the first families in this kingdom ;
and at the diiferent habitations of the Countess of Hert-
ford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, it was not unusual
for him to make visits of six months at a time.

He did not, however, continue very long a precarious
pensioner on the bounty of our nobility, prelates, and
gentry, who were not deficient in their generosity and
attention to him. A national pension of £1 00 per annum
was settled upon him. In 173G this pension was doubled
by Queen Caroline, who, vviih ail her faults, was a uiuuifi-

VOL IV X

206 COURAYER.

cent patroness of men of letters, and of indigent merit
To her he dedicated his French translation of "Father
Paul's History of the council of Trent, '" published in that
year ; and his dedication is penned in a strain of lively
and heartfelt gratitude.

By the sale of the translation just mentioned he cleared,
it is said, £1500, and was enabled to give £1000 to Lord
Feversham for an annuity of £100, which he enjoyed for
almost forty years.

P. Courayer, after his coming into this country, was
never in want of anything that was necessary for him,
or that could contribute to the comfort of his life, which
he protracted to the very advanced age of ninety-five years.
By degrees, and in no great length of time, he got into
very affluent circumstances, and was in the receipt of very
much more money yearly than his frugal mode of living
required.

He wrote some other books in French, besides those
that have been mentioned ; and, in particular, he tran-
slated into that language Sleidan's " History of the Refor-
mation." He died in Downing- Street, Westminster, after
two days illness, on the 17th of October, 1776. Accord-
ing to his own desire, he was buried in the cloister
of Westminster Abbey, by Dr. Bell, chaplain to the
Princess Amelia. In his will, which was dated Feb. 3,
1774, he declared, " That he died a member of the catholic
Church, but without approving of many of the opinions
and superstitions which have been introduced into the
Romish Church, and taught in their schools and semina-
ries, and which they have insisted on as articles of faith,
though to him they appeared to be not only not founded
in truth, but also to be highly improbable.'"

Such was the life, and such, so far as appeared to the
public during his life, were the doctrinal views of Courayer:
it is melancholy to be obliged to add, that it subsequently
came to light, by means of two posthumous works, that
towards the close, at least, of the long period of his earthly

COVEL. 207

existence, he had fallen into unsound views even on the
fundamental doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation.

As to the former, he acquiesced indeed in the language
of the Church, of the Three Persons in one Substance, but
attempting to explain this language otherwise than in the
received waj-, he fell apparently into a kind of modified
Sabellianism, or, to say the least, into a very near approxi-
mation to such a view. As regards the doctrine of the
Incarnation, he appears to have adopted a kind of Nesto-
rian idea. It must be observed, how^ever, that he seems
to have thought that he agreed in substance with the
catholic and orthodox doctrine, and differed only from the
*' common" or received way of expJaining it ; and that he
defended the maintainers of orthodoxy from the charges
made by the Socinians against them.

On the doctrine, too, of original sin, his views were very
unsound.

With respect, too, to the Atonement, there is in both
these treatises a silence v.iiich, particularly when taken in
connection with the Pelagian views just mentioned, is by
no means satisfactory. He defends, however, the doctrine
of a commemorative Sacrifice in the Eucharist.

When his posthumous works were published, Socinian-
ism was prevalent in this country, and Socinians laid
claim to Courayer, but from the above statement taken
from the preface to the Oxford Edition of the Dissertation,
and compared with the quotation from his will, the reader
will perceive that whatever were Courayer's errors, to the
soul-destroying heresy of the Socinians he was decidedly
opposed. — Courayer's Dissertation, Oxford Edition. Allge-
meine Encyclopadie. Courayer s Last Sentiments, uith Ac-
count of Author prefixed.

COVEL, JOHN.

John Covel was born at Horningsheath, in Suffolk, in
1638, and educated at Edmundsbury, from whence he
removed, in 1654, to Christ's College, Cambridge, of

208 COVEL.

which he became fellow. In 1670 he went to Constan-
tinople as chaplain to the embassy. This appointment
occasioned the publication of the work by which his name
is now known, Some Account of the Present Greek Church,
though the publication was delayed till a short time before
his death. In the preface he remarks "that many learned
men all over Europe have been very inquisitive, especially
in these last two centuries, about the constitutions and
doctrines of the Eastern Churches, especially that of the
Greeks ; and we have had several treatises and narratives
printed upon that subject. At last arose that famous
controversy between those two eminent Frenchmen, Mon-
sieur Arnold, doctor of the Sorbonne, and Monsieur Claud,
minister of Charenton, about the Real Presence in the
Eucharist. The first positively asserting, that the Greeks
and all other Christians in the east did own it in the
very sense of the school term, transubstantiation, accord-
ing to the council of Trent, and that it was handed
down to them, by an uninterrupted tradition even from
the Apostles themselves ; the second, as positively deny-
ing it.

" All Greeks who travelled or straggled this way amongst
the Europeans were every where nicely catechised and
examined about this point ; and I remember that about
the year 1668, 1669, there was one 'ir^Epta? n^/xavo?,
Jeremias Germanus here in England, at Oxford (well
known to Dr. Woodroof) and elsewhere, who told every
body that the Greeks believed no such thing, but that
they owned the elements to remain after consecration, as
our Church doth, still mere and true bread and wine.

" In the year 1670 I was appointed and sent as chaplain
to his excellency Sir Daniel Harvey, then Ambassador
from King Charles the Second at the Ottoman Porte ;
this caused the Reverend Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson
(then our two public professors at Cambridge) Dr. San-
croft, Dr. Womock, and several others to importune me
strictly to enquire into this matter after I arrived at
Constantinople."

COVERDALE. 209

The work is very learned, and is on that account in-
teresting, but it does not throw much Hght upon the then
existing Greek Church, and might have been written for
the most part bj one who had never been at Constanti-
nople. He. complains of the extreme ignorance of the
" Easterlings," as he calls them, though he says they were
not more ignorant than the generality of Romish priests ;
the Romanists understanding no Greek, and the Easter-
lings no Latin. Of the doctrine of transubstantiation, be
says that it was not introduced into the Greek Church till
after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, that is,
till after the year 1453. In 1679, he took his degree of
D.D., and was chosen Margaret preacher of divinity. The
next year he was presented to the living of Littlebury, in
Essex, and in 1687 was made chancellor of York, and the
next year master of Christ College, Cambridge. He died
in 17'2'2. — Covets Greek Church. Blog. Brit.

COVERDALE, MILES.

Miles Coverdale was born in Yorkshire, in the year
1488, and was educated in the convent of Augustines in
Cambridge, of which order he became a monk. In his
time, although our Church was corrupted by the errors of
popery, there were some young men at the university, who
had begun to suspect that a reformation was necessary,
and of this number was Miles Coverdale.

In 1514 he was ordained priest at Norwich, by John,
Bishop of Chalcedon. But he appears to have resided
still at Cambridge, where the new school of theology
continued to gain strength. Between the reforming and
the Romish prelates in our Church disputes now became
frequent, and the peace of the university was disturbed by
preachers coming up from the country to protest against
the Reformation ; while the advocates of the old doctrines
by these university preachers represented as new, took
x2

210 COVERDALE.

courage to defend themselves, till at last Dr. Barnes was
apprehended, and the Heads of Houses caused a diligent
search to be made for the prohibited books, — the books
relating to the necessity of a reform in the Church, and
especially the Bible.

Coverdale now took a more decided part ; he laid aside
the habit of a monk, and assuming that of a secular
priest, he went about preaching at different places, till at
last he thought it prudent to quit the country. In 1528
he joined Tyndal in Germany, who, in 1526, had published
the whole of the New Testament in English. It was printed
at Antwerp, and from thence imported into England.
There were several ancient translations in England, for it
is a mistake to suppose that before the Reformation no
translations were allowed. Long before Wickliff's trans-
lation, some hundred years, as Thomas James conjectures,
there was a translation of the whole Bible in English, of
which there are three copies at Oxford. And John
Thursby, Archbishop of York, who died in 1373, publicly
condemned the prelates and clergy who then began to
withhold the Scriptures from the people. There was a
translation of the Old and New Testament, by John
Trevisa, vicar of Berkley, in Cornwall, which was pub-
lished, according to Archbishop Usher, in 1360, and
according to Mr. Wharton, in 1387. In 1347 Richard
Fitzralph, commonly called Armachanus, as being Arch-
bishop of Armagh, translated the Bible into Irish. These
facts are worthy of note, for they seem to contradict the
popular notion, that by our Church before the Reforma-
tion, all versions of Scripture were prohibited. That about
the time of our Reformation the ignorant but more popular
party in the church had much fear of a translation of the
Bible, and that the majority of the bishops sided with the
popular preachers upon this point, is most true. They
were afraid lest the traditions by which they made the
word of God of none effect, should be by fresh light ex-
p'v)sed, not only to others, but to themselves. But the law

COVERDALE. Qll

as it existed, while it acknowledged all the translations
which had been made before the time of .Wickliff to be
lawful, prohibited any fresh translation without authority.
Tyndal therefore could not print his New Testament in
England.

Coverdale met Tyndal at Hamburgh, and assisted him
in the translation of part of the Old Testament, that is, of
the whole of the Pentateuch.

What became of Coverdale till the year 1535 is not
known, but in that year he published his translation of
the whole Bible. It was printed at Zurich.

The reforming party in England had by this time pro-
ceeded to very great excesses, especially in their calum-
nies against the bishops. The bishops, as the controlling
authorities, though influenced in the long run by a move-
ment, are called upon by every motive to pause before
they act. The bishops of our church at this time seem
to have acted with wisdom and caution. They saw that
something must be done to meet the general demand for
a version of Scripture, and Archbishop Wacham in letters
testimonial, declared it to be the intention of the King to
have the New Testament translated under the direction of
the bishops. He met the popular cry at the same time of
the clergy, and prohibited the various tracts of the new
school, which they pronounced to be heretical.

The progress of the new opinions may be traced in the
fact, that it was decreed by the convocation of the pro-
vince of Canterbury, in 1533, that the Holy Scriptures
should be translated into the vulgar tongue ; a decree
which was repeated in the convocation of 1534 ; at the
same time all persons having books of suspected doctrine
in the vulgar tongue were required to bring them in.

It was under these circumstances that Coverdale w^as
emboldened, in 1535, to publish his translation of the
Bible in small folio. It is disgraced by a dedication tilled
with the most disgusting flattery of the royal sensualist,
King Henry the Eighth, and by a violent attack upon
the Romish party in the church, which could only have

21S COVERDALE.

made the minds of the more bigoted Romanists revolt
against the new doctrines of which such was the fruit.
One is surprised that a man, fresh from the translation
of the Bible, should have evinced in his flattery and in
his anathema such a spirit.

It is a matter of dispute whether this Bible was cir-
culated with the King's sanction. It is supposed that for
a time the object of Coverdale's flattery approved of it, but
that when Ann BuUeyn fell into disgrace, and the royal
reformer had transferred his affections to another, all her
adherents, and all that she supported, became no longer
tolerable to the King.

In 1537 was published what is called Matthew's Bible,
though this was a fictitious name. It was set forth by
" the King's most gracious leave;" and was taken, as far
as it would go, as Mr. I^ewis says, from Tyndal's transla-
tion and Coverdale's.

The prologue and prefatory pieces attached to this
Bible gave offence ; and we find Coverdale superintend-
ing a new edition undertaken by Grafton at Paris.

The presses being seized by the Inquisition, this
edition was finished and published in London, in April,
1539. It is often called Cranmer's Bible, because some
copies have Cranmer's prologue in them ; but it seems
doubtful whether, in such cases, the prologue is not that
of the real Cranmer's Bible of 1540, bound up in the
edition of 1539.

On the accession of Edward VI., Coverdale, who seems
never to have been ambitious of martyrdom, and who had
lived in Germany, returned to England, when he was
made almoner to the Queen Dowager. In 1548 he
preached at St. Paul's Cross, when an anabaptist did
penance. He sat on the commission in 1551, under
which Van Paris was burnt for Arianism : and in the
same year he was appointed coadjutor to Veysey, Bishop
of Exeter, or in fact superseded him ; Veysey, who had so
far entered into the spirit of the courtly reformers, as to
have squandered the temporalities of his see, while he did

COVERDALE. 213

not embrace the purer doctrines of the more religious
reformers, was induced, for fear of exposure probably, to
resign. As bishop, Coverdale seems to have conducted
himself with great propriety of conduct, to have preached
often, and to have neglected none of the duties of his
station.

When Queen Mary came to the throne he was deprived
of his bishopric, because he was a married man, and un-
willing to part from his wife. As a monk he must have
taken the vow of celibacy, and therefore his marriage was
a scandal. In the new reign the Romish party in our
church regained the ascendency, and the marriage of
the clergy was, in their opinion, under any circumstances
censurable, though the New Testament is so very clear
in asserting that estate to be honourable among them, as
well as among other men. Whether Coverdale was placed
under constraint does not appear, but he certainly signed
the protestation of certain imprisoned divines. By the
interference of the King of Denmark, he was permitted to
retire to that country. After staying some time in Den-
mark he proceeded to Wezel, where he officiated to the
English refugees. The interest of the King of Denmark
was exerted in his favour through his chaplain. Dr. John
Machaboeus. Machaboeus and Coverdale had married
sisters. From Wezel he went to Bergzabern, a benefice
conferred upon him by Wcelfgang, Duke of Deux Fonts.
Thence he went to Geneva, when the Geneva Bible was
in the course of printing.

On the death of Mary he returned to England, entirely
won over to the ultra-pro testant views of the Genevan
reformers, a complete calvinist. But he appears to have
been a man of gentle spirit notwithstanding the violence
of temper he displayed in the dedication of his Bible,
and perhaps was easily influenced to a certain point by
those with whom he associated. We thus find him
officiating at the consecration of Dr. Parker, who was the
successor of cardinal Pole in the see of Canterbury, but
refusing to wear the episcopal dress.

214 COVERDALE.

The ceremonial on this occasion was of a grand descrip-
tion, and is thus described by Strype : " First of all, the
chapel on the east part was adorned with tapestry, and
the floor was spread with red cloth, and the table used for
the celebration of the holy Sacrament, being adorned
with a carpet and cushion, was placed at the east. More-
over, four chairs were set to the south of the east part of
the chapel for the bishops, to whom the office of conse-
crating the Archbishop was committed. There was also
a bench placed before the chairs, spread with a carpet and
cushions, on which the bishops kneeled. And in like
manner a chair, and a bench furnished with a carpet and
a cushion, was set for the Archbishop on the north side of
the east part of the same chapel.

" These things being thus in their order prepared,
about five or six in the morning, the Archbishop entereth
the chapel by the west door, having on a long scarlet
gown and a hood, with four torches carried before him,
and accompanied with four bishops, who were to conse-
crate him ; to wit, William Barlow, John Scory, Miles
Coverdale, and John Hodgkin, suffragan of Bedford.
After each of them in their order had taken their seats
prepared for them, morning prayer was said with a loud
voice by Andrew Pierson, the Archbishop's chaplain.
Which being finished, Scory went up into the pulpit, and
taking for his text. The elders which- are among you I
beseech, being also a fellow elder, dc, made an elegant
sermoD, admonishing the pastor of his office, care, and
faithfulness towards his flock ; and the flock, of the love,
duty, and reverence they owed to their pastor.

" Sermon being done, the Archbishop, together with the
other four bishops, go out of the chapel to prepare them-
selves for the holy communion : and, without any stay,
they come in again at the north door thus clad : the
Archbishop had on a linen surplice, the elect of Chi-
chester used a silk cope, being to administer the Sacra-
ment. On whom attended and yielded their service the
Archbishop's two chaplains, Nicolas Bullingham and

COVERDALE. 215

Edmund Gest, the one Archdeacon of Lincoln, and the
other of Canterbury, having on hkewise silk copes. The
elect of Hereford and the suffragan of Bedford wore
linen surplices : but Miles Coverdale had nothing but a
long clotli gown. Being in this manner appareled and
prepared, they proceed to celebrate the communion, the
Archbishop beiug on his bended knees at the lowest step
of the chapel. The Gospel being ended, the elect of
Hereford, the suffragan of Bedford, and Miles Coverdale,
brought the Archbishop before the elect of Chichester,
sitting in a chair at the table, with these words ; Eeverend
Father in God, we ojfer and present to you this godly and
learned man to he consecrated Archbishop. This being
spoken, forthwith was produced the royal instrument or
mandate for the Archbishop's consecration : which being
read through by Thomas Yale, doctor of laws, the oath
of the Queen's primacy, or of defending her supreme
authority, set forth and promulgated according to the
statute in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
was required of the said Archbishop.^ Which when he
solemnly had performed verbis concejjtis, the elect of
Chichester having exhorted the people to prayer, betook
himself to sing the litany, the choir answering. Which
being ended, after some questions propounded to the
Archbishop by the elect of Chichester, and the makiog
some prayers and suffrages to God, according to the form
of the book put forth by authority of Parliament, the
elects of Chichester and Hereford, the suffragan of Bed-
ford, and Coverdale, laying their hand upon the Arch-
bishop, said in English, 'Take the Holy Ghost; and
remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is in
thee by imposition of hands. For God hath not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness.'
These words being said, they delivered the holy Bible into
his hands, using these words to him ; ' Give heed unto
thy reading, exhortation, and doctrine. Think upon
these things contained in this book; be diligent in them,
that the increase coming thereby may be manifest unto all

216 COVERDALE.

men. Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy teaching,
and be dihgent in doing them. For in doing this, thou
Bhalt save thyself, and them that hear thee, through Jesus
Christ our Lord.' After they had said these things, the
elect of Chichester (delivering no pastoral staff to the
Archbishop) proceeded to the other solemnities of the
communion ; with whom the Archbishop, and the other
bishops before named, did communicate, together with
some others : when the Archbishop desired the prayers
of them all, that the office now laid upon him by the
hands of the presbytery might above all tend to the glory
of God, and salvation of the Christian flock, and the joyful
testimony of his own conscience from his office faithfully
performed, when it should happen that he should go to
the Lord, to whom he had devoted himself.

" These things being finished and performed, the Arch-
bishop goeth out through the north door of the east part
of the chapel, accompanied with those four that had con-
secrated him: and presently, being attended with the
same bishops, returned by the same door, wearing an
episcopal white garment, and a chime re of black silk :
and about his neck he had a rich tippet of sable. In like
manner the elects of Chichester and Hereford had on
their episcopal garments, surplice, and chimere : but
Coverdale and the suffragan of Bedford wore only their
long gowns. The Archbishop then going forward toward
the west door, gave to Thomas Doyle, his steward, John
Baker, his treasurer, and John March, his comptroller,
to each of them white staves ; admitting them after this
manner into their places and offices. These things there-
fore thus performed in their order, as is already said, the
Archbishop goeth out of the chapel by the west door, the
gentlemen of his family of the better sort in blood going
before him, and the rest following behind. All and sin-
gular these things w^ere acted and done in the presence of
the reverend fathers in Christ, Edmund Grindal, elect
Bishop of London ; Richard Cocks, elect of Ely ; Edwin
Sandes, elect of Wigorn ; Anthony Huse, Esq., principal

COVERDALE. 2lT

and primary Register of the said Archbishop ; Thomas
Argal, Esq., Register of the Prerogative of the court of
Canterbury ; Thomas Willet and John Incent, Public
Notaries, and some others."

As Coverdale would not himself conform to the rules of
the Church, he could not be restored to his bishopric.
He could not be expected to enforce the orders which he
neglected himself. The non-conformists were in general
so intolerant and violent in their proceedings, that he
would naturally be regarded with suspicion for a time,
and he had no right to expect preferment in the church.
Nevertheless the chief ecclesiastics regarded him with
sympathy and affection. Archbishop Grindal, himself a
puritan at heart, though he conformed, endeavoured to
obtain for him a Welsh bishopric, probably because his
irregularities would not be observed in that distant
diocese ; and when he failed he presented him with the
rectory of St. Magnus, London Bridge. His poverty was
such as to induce the Queen to remit the payment of the
first fruits, amounting to £60. Here he preached for
about two years, but he resigned the living in 1566, pro-
bably because a stricter conformity was at that time
required than he was willing to concede. He died in
February, 1569, at the age of eighty-one, and on the 19th
of that month was buried in St. Bartholomew's church,
behind the Exchange.

The following is given by the Parker Society as the list
of his works : —

1. The Old Faith ; an evident probation that the
Christian Faith hath endured since the beginning of the
world. (Translation from H. Bullinger.) 1547.

2. A Spiritual and most Precious Pearl. A translation
from Otho Wermullerus. 1550.

3. Treatise on Justification. From the same.

4. The Book of Death. From the same.

5. The Hope of the Faithful. From the same.

6. Fruitful Lessons upon the Passion, Death, Resur-

VOL. IV. Y

218 COVERDALE.

rection, and Ascension of our Saviour, and the giving of
the Holy Ghost. 1540—47.

7. Abridgment of Erasmus's Enchiridion.

8. A Confutation of that Treatise which one John
Standish made against the Protestation of Dr. Barnes in
the year 1540.

9. Christian State of Matrimony.

10. Faithful and true Prognostication on the years
1536—48—49.

1 1 . Translation of Luther's Exposition of the Twenty-
third Psalm. 1537.

12. How and whither a Christian ought to flee the
horrible plague of the Pestilence. Translated from Osian-
der. 1537.

13. Acts of the Disputation in the Council of the
Empire holden at Ptavenspurg, set forth by Bucer and
Melancthon. Translated by M. C.

14. (1) The Christian Ptule and state of all the world.

(2) A Christian Exhortation unto customable Swearers.

(3) The Manner of saying Grace or giving Thanks to
God.

15. Defence of a certain poor Christian man, who else
should have been condemned by the Pope's law. Trans-
lated from the German.

16. Ghostly Psalms and Spiritual Songs drawn out of
the Holy Scripture.

17. (1) Exposition of the Magnificat. (2) The Original
and Spring of all Sects.

18. (1) A Christian Catechism. (2) Cantus usuales
Witeburgensium. (3) The Apology of the Germans against
the Council of Mantua.

19. A faithful and most godly Treatise concerning
the most sacred Sacrament of the Body and Blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, translated from Calvin ; where-
unto the order that the Church and Congregation of
Christ in Denmark doth use at the receiving of Baptism,
the Supper of the Lord, and Wedlock, is added.

COURTNEY. 219

20. The Supplication that the Nobles and Commons
of Osterick made unto King Ferdinand. Translated
by M. C.

21. The Testimony and Report, which Eccius gave and
sent in to the Council of those Princes, which name them-
selves Catholic. 15-12.

x\uthorities, — Strijpe. Johnson on English Translations
oj tlie Bible. Memorials of Coverdale, published by Bagster.

COURTNEY, WILLIAM.

William Courtney was the fourth son of Hugh
Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, by Margaret, daughter of
Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, by his
wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I. He was born in
the year 1341, and was educated at Oxford, where he
applied himself to the study of the civil and the canon
law, at that time studied by the clergy, as we learn from
Dante, more than the gospels. A man of talent, and of
his high birth, was sure to be speedily preferred, and in
that age, when the reformation of the Church of Eng-
land, indeed of the universal church, was so much needed,
we are not surprised at finding him possessing prebends
at Bath, and at Exeter, and at York. In 1369, during
the reign of Edward III., he was consecrated to the see of
Hereford, and from thence, in his 34th year, was trans-
lated to the see of London. In 1376 the Bishop of Lon-
don opposed the grant of a subsidy to the King on the
ground of his having received some injuries from the great
William of Wykeham, for which he desired to have
redress before the subsidy was made. The King could
only obtain a subsidy by holding out hopes, never realiz-
ed, of acceding to the Bishop of London's proposal. He
was a decided papist, and as such took low views of the
episcopate. In his zeal for the papacy he violated the
laws of the land by publishing a bull of Pope Gregory II.
without the King's consent.

230 COURTNEY.

His conduct appears to have been very bad ; the affair
was this : Pope Gregory II. had lately excommunicated
the Florentines, and had dispatched his bulls every
where, ordering their effects to be seized. The Bishop
of London, without consulting the King, published the
pope's bull at Paul's Cross, and gave the populace license
to plunder the houses of such Florentines as were in the
city. The lord-mayor hereupon, restraining the violence
of the people, placed a seal on the doors of the Floren-
tines, and conducted them to the King, who took them
into his protection. Afterwards, by order of the King,
the Bishop of Exeter, lord high chancellor, summoned
the Bishop of London into the Court of Chancery, to
answer for having dared to publish the pope's bull, with-
out consent of the King and council, and contrary to the
laws of the land. Courtney pleaded the pope's authority
and command. But the chancellor gave sentence, that
he should either forfeit his temporalities, or revoke his
words with his own mouth. With some difficulty the
Bishop of London obtained that he might re-call them by
one of his officers ; and accordingly an official mounted
Paul's Cross, and addressed the people in these words :
My lord said nothing about the interdict ; it is strange
that you should misunderstand, who hear so many
sermons from this place.

Such was our Church in the middle ages, and as such
the moral sense of mankind demanded its reformation.
A reforming party appeared at Oxford, under the leading
of the celebrated Dr. Wicklitf. Although Romanism
formed no part of the religion of the Church of England
at that time, most of her divines were Romanists, and
though contrary to law, the popes exercised great authority
and influence in our church; just as at a later period,
our divines became calvinistic, more or less, though Cal-
vinism is no part of our church : the vehemence of the
great body of the clergy against Wickliff was great.

Wickliff was cited to appear before the Bishop of
London's tribunal, in St Paul's Church, in 1377. He

COURTNEY. V 221

attended, accompanied by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancas-
ter, and by the Lord Marshal Percy, who told him to
keep up his spirits, for the bishops were but ignoramuses
compared to him ; the Duke and Lord Marshal being of
course fit judges on such a point. The crowd around the
court was great, anxious to obtain a view of the Oxford
heretic. Even the proud Percy could with difficulty
obtain an entrance. The Bishop of London was justly
annoyed at the disturbance occasioned by the sudden
appearance of these nobles, and at seeing Dr. WicklifF so
attended. Upon this a dispute happened between his lord-
ship and these two peers. Lord Percy, said the bishop, if
I had known before hand what masteries you would have
kept, I would have stopt you from coming hither : upon
which the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, replied, he
shall keep such masteries, though you say nay. Soon
after Lord Percy rudely and impertinently addressed
AVickliff desiring him to sit down, saying, you have many
things to answer for, and therefore need a soft seat ; — the
bishop upon this very justly remarked, that it was not
reasonable that a person cited before his ordinary should
sit down during his answers, when the Duke of Lancaster
insolently said in open court, " The Lord Percy's motion
for Wickliff is but reasonable. And as for you, my lord
bishop, who are grown so proud and arrogant, 1 will bring
down the pride not of you only, but of all the prelacy of
England. Thou bearest thyself so; brag upon thy parents
which shall not be able to protect thee ; they shall have
enough to do to help themselves." The bishop with great
dignity and composure replied : "My confidence is not in
my parents, nor in any other man, but in God only
in whom I trust, by whose assistance I will be bold to
speak the truth." The insolent duke was abashed, but
enraged, he said, not openly in court, but so as to be
heard by those around him, " Piather than take these
words at a bishop's hands, I'll pluck him by the hair of
his head out of the church." Though the words were

2^2-2 COURTNEY.

uttered so as not to be heard by the bishop, they did not
escape some of the Londoners who were near him, who
declared aloud, that leather than see their bishop thus
insulted they would die. Amid this scandalous inter-
ference with an episcopal court little business was done.
Wickliff was silenced, and for a time it appears that,
grateful for the mild measures adopted towards him, lie
gave no fui'ther annoyance.

Meantime the Duke and the Lord Marshal Percy,
enraged against the Londoners, went to the house of par-
liament, and brought in a bill to put down the office of
lord-mayor, and to place the city under military control.
The Londoners, enraged, assaulted and plundered the
houses of the Duke and Lord Percy, and would have pro-
ceeded to extremities against them had it not been for the
generous interference of the bishop. We are told that the
Bishop of London, hearing of the tumult, left his dinner,
and going hastily to the Savoy, desired the people to
desist, and to consider that it was the holy time of Lent,
assuring them that care should be taken of the rights and
privileges of the city. He succeeded ; the Duke's palace
was spared, and the mob was contented with hanging
up the Duke's arms reversed in the principal streets of
the city.

Godwin tells us that, in 1378, Courtney was made a
cardinal; but he speaks without authority. He certainly
was chancellor in the year 1381, and was in the same year
translated to the see of Canterbury, vacant by the murder
of Dr. Sudbury. He was elected by the chapter of Can-
terbury, and by a curious coincidence Pope Urban had
fixed upon the same person. But before the arrival of
the pope's bull, he had done homage for the temporalities,
he had repaired to Lambeth, where one of their chapter
was sent to him by the prior and convent of Canterbury
with the archiepiscopal cross or crosier. As bishop he
had a right to the pastoral staff, — the crosier being pecu-
liar to an archbishop. The monk addressed the arch-

COURTNEY. 223

bishop seated in his chapel thus : " Reverend Father, I
am the messenger of the supreme King, who entreats,
commands, and enjoins that you take upon you the
government of his church, and that you love and pro-
tect it, in token of which message, I deliver into your
hand the banner of the supreme King." It would seem
that the prior and convent were anxious to exercise their
right of election without reference to the see of Rome ;
but Courtney was unwilling to act thus independently, so
completely was he under the Rouiish influence. Not
having received the pall, he was doubtful whether the
cross should be carried bef re him, that is, whether he
might assume the archiepiscopal dignity, and in that
capacity crown the young Queen, who had lately arrived
in England, as consort of King Richard II. The monks
of Canterbury could easily prove that this deference to a
foreign bishop had not been always paid by his predeces-
sors ; but before the archbishop would act he published a
protest that he did not do so in any contempt of the court
of Rome. We are naturally sorry to find one of the arch-
bishops of the Church of England, thus forgetful of the
independent authority of every member of the episcopate ;
but perhaps at the present time persons in a situation
similar to that of Courtney, would bow down before a worse
authority, that is, the authority of };arliament.

He received the pall on the 0th of May, 1382; and in
this year held a synod in London, assisted by seven
bishops and several doctors and bachelors in theology, and
in canon and civil law. Ten propositions of Wickliff were
ileclared heretical ; viz : First, that in the sacrament of
the altar, the substances of the bread and wine remain
after consecration. Second, that the accidents cannot
remain after the consecration without the substance.
Third, that Jesus Christ is not actually and really in his
proper corporeal presence in the Eucharist. Fourth, that
no priest or bishop in mortal sin may ordain, or conse-
crate, or baptize. Fifth, that outward confession is not
necessary to those who duly repent. Sixth, that no pas-

'2-24: COURTNEY,

sage can be adduced from the gospels showing that our
Lord instituted the mass. Seventh, that God must obey
the devil. Eighth, that if the pope be an impostor, or a
wicked man, and consequently a member of the devil, he
hath no power over the faithful, except such as he may
have received from the Emperor. Ninth, that after the
death of the preseut pope, Urban VI., no pope ought to
be recoginzecl, but people should live, like the Greeks,
according to their own laws. Tenth, that it is contrary to
Holy Scripture for ecclesiastical persons to hold temporal
possessions.

The council declared fourteen other propositions erro-
neous, and the Archbishop obtained of the King authority
to arrest and imprison all persons teaching and maintain-
ing their opinions. The King's letter is dated July 12.

The Archbishop issued his mandate in 1383 for the
observance of the festival of St. Ann, the supposed mother
of the Virgin Mary. Although, as we have seeo, he yielded
his rights to the pope, he was careful in other respects to
maiutain the authority of the clergy. In 1387 he sum-
moned his suffragans and lower clergy to London, and at
the opening of the convocation preached on the following
text, Supra muros Jerusalem constitui custodes. A sub-
sidy was granted to the King, or rather to the government
which had been consigned by the King to eleven commis-
sioners, the Archbishop of Canterbury being one. And
perceiving that several noblemen would be tried for their
lives, and that causes of blood would be brought into the
parliament, and that the canons barred those of his order
from being present at them, the Archbishop entered his
protest for the saving the privilege of the lords spiritual,
and left the house.

The purport of the protest is to set forth that the lords
spiritual, by virtue of their baronies, and as peers of the
realm, had a right to sit, debate, vote and give judgment
with the rest of the peers, in all cases and matters trans-
acted in parliament. But since impeachments of high
treason, and trials fur life were coming on, tliey v/ere for-

COURTNEY. 005

bidden by the canons of the church to concern themselves
in matters of that nature ; making a protest that for this
only reason, they were obliged to withdraw. And thus,
having guarded the entireness of their peerage, they con-
cluded with declaring, that nothing done in their absence
upon this occasion should be hereafter questioned or
opposed by any of their body.

This instrument, at the instance and petition of the
Archbishop and his suffragans, was read in full par-
liament, and entered upon the parliament rolls by the
King's command, with the assent of the temporal lords
and commons.

The Bishops of Durham and Carlisle, in the province of
York, entered the same protest.

In the year loOl he published his constitutions
against CJwpjje- Chapels. The following is the certificatory
of Dr. Braybrook, Bishop of London, in answer to the
Archbishop, containing a copy of his mandate.

To the most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, the
Lord William, by the grace of God Archbishop of Canter-
bury, primate of A. E., legate of the apostolical see, Robert
by divine permission Bishop of London, obedience and
reverence, with the honour due to so great a father. We
received your most reverend mandate according to the
tenour underwritten.

" William by divine permission Archbishop of Canter-
bury, primate of A. E., legate of the apostolical see, to our
venerable brother Robert, by the grace of God Bishop of
London, health and brotherly charity in the Lord. We
are bitterly grieved, when any of the flock under our trust
provokes the Most High by his villanies, and strikes
himself with a damuabk sentence, and rashly throws him-
self into destruction. But humane laws and canonical
statutes, do among other things abhor covetousness, which
is idolatry, and damned simoniacal ambition. But (alas !)
some men's minds now a days, are so darkened and
smitten with outward things, as never to look inward to
themselves, or to Him that is invisible, while they are

226 COURTNEY.

puft up with temporal honours, still desiriDg more, slight-
ing the ways of God. Some traffic for the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, while they pay or make simoniacal contracts
for churches and ecclesiastical benefices, forgetting the
words of Peter to Simon, Thy money perish tvith thee, because,
dc. Others of these tare-sowers, perverters of right, inven-
tors of mischief, commonly called Choppe- Churches, defraud
some by an unequal change of benefices through their
wicked intriguing and execrable thirst of gain ; and
sometimes wholly deprive others of the benefices they have
through false colours ; insomuch, that being reduced from
an opulent to a poor condition, and not being able to dig,
they die of grief, or else are compelled to beg through
extreme poverty, to the scandal of the Church and clergy.
Others, though they who serve at the altar should live by
the altar, &c., according to the Apostle, procure persons to
be presented to churches with cure and ecclesiastical
benefices, by importunity and money ; and to be instituted
therein, after having first wickedly sworn, that so long as
they have those benefices they will claim no profits from
them, nor any way dispose of them, but leave them to
their direction and profit, [who procured them] under pre-
tence of an exchange, or purely at their request. By
which means (whereas one church ought to belong to one
priest, and no one ought to have several dignities or
parish churches) one man, insufficient for one cure though
a small one, sweeps to himself by a trick the profits of
many benefices, which if equally distributed, would abun-
dantly sufiice for many learned and very reputable men
who very much want it ; divine worship and hospitality is
neglected; the indevotion of the people toward the Church
and them who belong to it is increased, and the cure of
souls is not minded. Such carnal men despise spiritual
precepts, and affect temporal riches in contempt of eternal
rewards. But it were to be wished, that for their own
amendment, they would be afraid of punishment, by con-
sidering how the Redeemer of Mankind cast the chapmen
out of the temple, saying. Make not my Father s house a

COURTNEY. 22T

house of merchandize. Our Lord never dealt so severely
with any offenders, to demonstrate that other sinners
ought to be reprehended, but these to be driven far from
the church. Farther, some raptors rather than rectors of
churches, shepherds, who know not and take no care of
their flocks, provoke the divine indignation, neglecting
hospitality without cause, shamefully spending their time
at London, devouring Christ's patrimony, living daintily
on the bread of the hungry, clothing themselves with the
garments of the naked, and with the ransom of captives :
they dare not say with the prophet, The Lord is the
portion of my inheritance ; but rather, We desire not the
knowledge of Thy ways. Whereas, therefore, the cure
of souls is our chief concern, of which we are to give a
strict account ; and resolving not any longer to connive at
so great a scandal of the clergy of the Church of England,
and so perilous and pernicious an example, at the impor-
tunate request of many we give it in charge, and command
you my brother in virtue of obedience, and do will and
command that the rest of my suffragans and fellow-bishops
of our province of Canterbury, be enjoined by you to take
corporal oaths of all whatsoever, that are to be presented
to ecclesiastical benefices, now or hereafter to be void
within your dioceses, that they have not given or promised
directly or indirectly, by themselves, or by any employed
by them for the presentation, to the presenter or any other
persons whatsoever ; and that neither they nor their friends
are obliged by oath or any pecuniary security, to resign or
make exchange of the benefices ; and that no unlawful
compact hath been made in this respect, nor promise with
their will or knowledge : and that in case of exchauge no
proxies, though signed by notaries, be allowed, without
the presence of the principals, and a provident examination
of the equality as to the value of the benefices, and an
oath given by each party that no fraud private or public is
used in the exchange : and that the noo-residents in your
dioceses be effectually called home to do their duty; and
the simoniacal possessors, or rather usurpers of churches

ns COURTNEY.

be severely censured ; and that the accursed partakers
with Gehazi and Simon, the Chop2Je- Churches, who chiefly
are at London, be in general admonished to desist from
such procurings, changings and trickings made in their
conventicles and simoniacal assemblies for the future :
and let them cassate and cancel all contracts and bargains
fraudulently made, though confirmed with oaths, which in
this case are null ; and let all such frauds and simoniacal
contracts, which are not in their power to break, be dis-
covered to the bishop of the dioceses in which such bene-
fices as are concerned in the transaction do lie, that they
by whose procurement or consent these contracts were
made, may be enjoined penance according to their merits,
under pain of the greater excommunication after fifteen
days' notice, (five days being allowed after each of the three
usual admonitions) which we pass upon them by this
writing from this time foi'ward, as well as from that time
forward. And do ye strictly enjoin and cause other
bishops to be so enjoined, that these wicked merchants of
the Lord's inheritance, and such as have several dignities,
churches, and Chojipe- Churches, be struck with the sword
of ecclesiastical censuie, especially such of them as are in
orders, as being universally abhorred by all, lest by the
neglect of you and other bishops this clamour be again
repeated in our ears. And do ye cause us to be certified
of what you have done in the premises before the feast of
St. Michael the Archangel next ensuing, by your letters
patents containing a copy of these presents. Dated in
our Manor of Slyndon, on the fifth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1391, and of our translation the
eleventh.

" By authority of which reverend mandate we have en-
joined it by our letters, as the custom is, to be fully exe-
cuted as to all and singular its contents, by all and singular
your sufifragans of your province of Canterbury in their
cities and dioceses, according to the full power, form, and
effect of the said mandate, and have caused the said
mandate, and all and singular the premises, so far as we

COURTNEY. 229

are concerned to be put in due execution, and will cause
it so to be done to the best of our power, God permitting.
And thus we have duly executed your most reverend man-
date, according to the demand and effect thereof in and
through all particulars. Dated in our Manor of Hadham
on the seventh day of September, in the year of our^I.oi'd
above- written, and of our consecration the eleventh."

In 1392, the Archbishop held a synod in St. Marys
Church, Cambridge, in which a tenth was granted to the
King under circumstances rather pecuhar, as related by
Speed.

" The laity, at the parliament now holden at London,
had yielded to aid the King with a fifteenth, upon condi-
tion that the clergy should succour him with a tenth and
a half, against which unjust proportion William de Court-
ney, Archbishop of Canterbury, most stiffly opposed,
alleging, that the Church ought to be free, nor in anywise
to be taxed by the laity, and that himself would rather die
than endure that the Church of England (the liberties
whereof had by so many free parliaments, in all times,
and not only in the reign of this King, been confirmed)
should be made a bond maid. This answer so offended
the commons, that the knights of the shires, and some
peers of the land, with extreme fury, besought, that tem-
poralities might be taken away from ecclesiastical persons,
saying, that it was an alms-deed, and an act of charity, so
to do, thereby to humble them. Neither did they doubt,
but that their petition, which they had exhibited to the
King, would take effect. Hereupon they designed among
themselves, out of which abbey, which should receive such
a certain sum, and out of which, another I myself (saith
a monk of St. Alban's) heard one of those knights confi-
dently swear, that he would have a yearly pension of a
thousand marks out of the temporalities belonging to that
abbey. But the King, having heard both parts, com-
manded the petitioners to silence, and the petition to be
razed out, saying, he would maintain the English Church

VOL. IV. z

230 COURTNEY.

in the quality of the same state or better, in which himself
had known it to be when he came to the crown. The
Archbishop hereupon, having consulted with the clergy,
came to the King, and declared, that he and the clergy
had with one consent willingly provided to supply his
majesty's occasions with a tenth. This grant the King
took so contentedly, as he openly affirmed he was better
pleased with this free contribution of one tenth for the
present, than if he had gotten four by compulsion."

This year he commenced his metropolitical visitation,
but was opposed at first by the Bishops of Exeter and
Salisbui7. The Bishop of Exeter issued his mandate,
forbidding all persons in his diocese, under pain of excom-
munication, to acknowledge the Archbishop's jurisdiction.
Courtney issued a mandate in opposition thereto, requiring
their submission to his authority. The Bishop appealed
to the pope, and fixed up his appeal upon the gates of his
cathedral. The Archbishop notwithstanding proceeded in
his visitation, and cited the Bishop to appear before him,
and answer to certain articles exhibited against him. The
citation was despatched by one of the Archbishop's officers,
named Peter Hill ; who being met by some of the Bishop
of Exeter's servants in the town of Topsham, they, disco-
vering his business, not only beat him most unmercifully,
but obliged the poor fellow to chew, and swallow the
instrument, which was of parchment, wax and all. The
King, being informed of this violence, sent an order to the
Earl of Devonshire, and others, to apprehend the bishop's
servants, and bring them before the Archbishop. Which
being done, Courtney enjoined them the following penance.
They were to walk in procession before the cross, in their
shirts only, and carrying lighted tapers in their hands ;
to pay a certain stipend to a priest for saying daily mass
at the tomb of the Earl of Devonshire ; and lastly to pay
twenty shillings each towards repairing the walls of the
city of Exeter. The Bishop in the meantime prosecuted
his appeal in the court of Rome ; but finding the Arch-

COURTNEY. tJ31

bishop's credit prevail there, and that the King likewise
espoused his cause, he thought it the most prudent course
to withdraw his appeal, and to acknowledge both his own
offence and the Archbishop s jurisdiction. The Bishop of
Salisbury, when it came to his turn to be visited, made
no less resistance, but proceeded, as he thought, with more
prudence and caution than the Bishop of Exeter had
done. For being of opinion, that the Archbishop's visito-
rial power was founded solely upon the authority of Pope
Urban, who was now dead, he found means to procure
from Pope Boniface, his successor, an exemption of himself
and his diocese from metropolitical visitation in virtue of
Pope Urbans authority. With this privilege he waited on
the Archbishop at Croydon, but met with an unexpected
reception from that prelate, who declared he would visit
the diocese of Salisbury, notwithstanding any papal ex-
emption, and commanded the bishop to be ready to receive
him on a certain day in his cathedral church. The bishop,
depending on his privilege, took no notice of this order ;
and, the Archbishop beginning his visitation, appealed to
the Pope. The Archbishop immediately excommunicated
him, and commenced a prosecution at law against him,
for endeavouring to withdraw himself from the subjection
he owed to the see of Canterbury. The Bishop of Salis-
bury, terrified by this severity, and the recent example of
his brother of Exeter, renounced his appeal, acknowledged
the Archbishop's jurisdiction, and, through the interces-
sion of the Earl of Salisbury and others, obtained absolu-
tion and reconciliation.

In this year the King directed his royal mandate to the
Archbishop, not to countenance or contribute any thing
towards a subsidy for the Pope. The writ sets forth,
" That the Archbishop could not be ignorant, that the
King was bound by oath to maintain the rights and cus-
toms of the kingdom, to govern impartially by the laws, to
secure the property of the subject, and to prevent imposi-
tions being charged or levied upon the people without the
common consent of the kingdom," The King suggests

332 COURTNEY.

farther, " That the commons, lately assembled in parlia-
ment at Westminster, had addressed him for a remedy
against the impositions upon the clergy, at that time
exhausted by the court of Rome ; and had petitioned him,
that if any person should bring in any papal bulls for
levying such impositions, or should actually collect or levy
such impositions, he should be adjudged, and suffer as a
traitor to him and his kingdom." His highness adds,
*' That he had granted, with the consent of the same
parliament, that nothing should be levied or paid, that
might tend to the burthen or damage of the subject and
kingdom ; that notwithstanding this legal provision, he
was informed of a new papal imposition upon the clergy,
which by his (the Archbishop s) authority, or that of his
suffragans by his order, >vas to be levied without the
common advice and assent of the kingdom ; which he
(the King) could not suffer consistently with his oath.'*
And therefore in the close he commands the Archbishop,
" upon his allegiance, and under the highest forfeitures,
to revoke his orders for the levying this tax, and to return
what had been already paid," enjoining him " not to pay,
or contribute any thing to this subsidy, under the penalties
aforesaid." Witness the King at Westminster, the 10th
day of October. Writs of the same purport and date were
directed to the Archbishop of York, to all the bishops of
both provinces, to the guai*dians of the spiritualities, and
to the several collectors of this tax. A like writ was di-
rected to the Pope's nuncio, commanding him to desist
from exacting this subsidy, sub forisfactura vitse et mem-
brorum, under forfeiture of life and limb. This imposition
was the payment of a tenth laid upon the clergy by the
Pope, as appears by the title of the record, Becimis Papae
non solvendis.

On the ocfave of Hilary a parliament was held at Win-
chester ; and here, the Archbishop of Canterbury being
probably suspected of abetting the pope's encroachments
upon the Church and State, delivered in his answer to
certain articles in the tenor following : —

COURTNEY. 233

" To our dread sovereign Lord the King in this present
parliament, his humble chaplain William, Archbishop of
Canterbury, gives in his answer to the petition brought
into the parliament by the commons of the realm, in
which petition are contained certain articles.

" That is to say, first. Whereas our sovereign Lord
the King, and all his liege subjects ought of right, and
had been always accustomed to sue in the King's court, to
recover their presentations to churches, to maintain their
titles to prebendaries and other benefices of holy Church,
to which they have a right to present. The cognizance of
which plea belongs solely to the court of our sovereign
lord the King, by virtue of his ancient prerogative, main-
tained and practised in the reigns of all his predecessors
Kings of England. And when judgment is given in his
highnesses said court upon any such plea, the archbishops,
bishops, and other spiritual persons, who have the right of
giving institution to such benefices within their jurisdic-
diction, are bound to execute such judgments, and used
always to make execution of them at the King's command,
(since no lay person can make any such execution) and are
also bound to make execution of many other commands of
our lord the King : of which right, the crown of England
has been all along peaceably possessed ; but now of late,
divers processes have been made by the holy father the
pope, and excommunications published against several
English bishops for making such executions, and acting
in pursuance to the King's commands in the cases above
mentioned, and that such censures of his holiness are
inflicted in open disherison of the crown and subversive of
the prerogative royal, of the King's laws, and his whole
realm, unless prevented by proper remedies."

To this article, the Archbishop premising his protesta-
tion, " that it was none of his intention to affirm our holy
father the pope has no authority to excommunicate a
bishop, pursuant to the laws of holy Church, declares, and
answers, that if any executions of processes are made, or

234 COURTNEY.

shall be made by any person : if any censures of excom-
munication shall be published, and served upon any
English bishops, or any other of the King s subjects, for
their having made execution of any such commands, he
maintains such censures to be prejudicial to the King's
prerogative, as it is set forth in the commons' petition :
and that so far forth he is resolved to stand with our lord
the King, and support his crown in the matters above
menti(med, to his power,

" And likewise whereas it is said in the petition, that
complaint has been made, that the said holy father the
pope had designed to translate some English prelates to
sees out of the realm, and some from one bishopric to
another, without the knowledge and consent of our lord
the King, and without the assent of the prelates so trans-
lated, (which prelates are very serviceable and necessary
to our lord the King, and his whole realm) which transla-
tions, if they should be suffered, the statutes of the realm
would be defeated, and made in a great measure insignifi-
cant, and the said lieges of his highnesses council would
be removed out of his kingdom, without their assent, and
against their inclination, and the ti'easure of the said
realm would be exported : by which means, the country
would become destitute both of wealth and council, to the
utter destruction of the said realm : and thus, the crown
of England, which has always been so free and indepen-
dent, as not to have any earthly sovereign, but to be
immediately subject to God in all things touching the pre-
rogatives and royalty of the said crown, should be made
subject to the pope, and the laws and statutes of the
realm defeated and set aside by him at pleasure, to the
utter destruction of the sovereignty of our lord the King,
his crown and royalty, and his whole kingdon, which God
forbid.

" The said Archbishop, first protesting that it is not his
intention to affirm, that our holy father aforesaid cannot
make translations of prelates according to the laws of holy

COURTNEY. 235

Church, answers and declares that if any English prelates,
who by their capacity and qualification, were very service-
able and necessary to our lord the King, and his realm, if
any such prelates were translated to any sees in foreign
dominions, or the sage lieges of his council were forced out
of the kingdom agaiust their will, and that by this means,
the wealth and treasure of the kingdom should be exported;
in this case, the Archbishop declares that such transla-
tions would be prejudicial to the King and his crown : for
w^hich reason, if any thing of this should happen, he
resolves to adhere loyally to the King, and endeavour as
he is bound by his allegiance, to support his highness in
this, and all other instances, in which the rights of his
crown are concerned. And lastly, he prayed the King
this schedule might be made a record, and entered upon
the parliament roll, which the King granted."

From this declaration of the Archbishop, it is evident
he was no vassal to the court of Rome : he did not assert
the pope's supremacy so far as to weaken his allegiance,
or to make him an ill subject.

We may observe farther, that this schedule of the Arch-
bishop seems to have led the way to the statute of prae-
munire passed in this parliament. For the preamble and
introductive part of the act is but a copy as it were of this
declaration. The bill, it is true, was brought in by the
commons by way of petition, who prayed the King to
examine the opinions of the lords spiritual and temporal
upon the contents. The question being put, the lords
temporal promise to stand by the King, against the pope's
encroachments ; neither were the engagements of the
lords spiritual less loyal and satisfactory : For they con-
curred in all points with the commons' petitions, and
renounced the pope in all his attempts upon the crown.

After this preambulatory remonstrance, together with
the engagement of the three estates to stand by the crown
in the cases above mentioned, the enacting part of the
statute follows, viz.

236 COURTNEY.

" Whereupon our said lord the King by the assent
aforesaid, and at the request of his said commons, hath*
ordained, and established, that if any purchase, or pursue,
or cause to be purchased or pursued, in the court of
Rome or elsewhere, any such translations, processes and
sentences of excommunications, bulls, instruments, or any
other things whatsoever, which touch the Kiug, against
him, his crown and his royalty, or his realm, as is afore-
said, and they which bring within the realm, or them
receive, or make thereof notification, or any other execu-
tion whatsoever within the same realm, or without, that
they, their notaries, procurators, maintainors, abettors,
fautors, and counsellors, shall be put out of the King's
protection, and their lands, and tenements, goods and
chattels, forfeit to our lord the King : and that they be
attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and
brought before the King and his council, there to answer
to the cases aforesaid, or that process be made against
them by praemunire facias in manner as it is ordained in
other statutes of provisors : and other which do sue in any
other court in derogation of the royalty of our lord the
King."

In 1395 he visited the diocese of Lincoln, where he
gave a considerable check to the growth of the Oxford
heresy. He obtained most unjustly from the pope, who
had no right to grant it, a grant of four-pence in the
pound to defray the expenses of his visitation, on all
ecclesiastical benefices : he was opposed by the Bishop of
Lincoln, who most unwisely appealed to the pope. Thus
was it, that by disputes between our own bishops, the
Church of England was betrayed into the hands of a
foreign prince and prelate. In the midst of this unhappy
controversy. Archbishop Courtney died. His death occur-
red on the 31st of July, 1396.

He founded a college of secular priests at Maidstone,
and left a thousand marks for the repairs of Canterbury
cathedral. — Godwin. Collier. Parker. Johnsons Eccles.
Laws. Wilkin s Cone. Wharton.

cox. m

COWPER, WILLIAM.

William Cowpek, prelate, was born at Edinburgh, in
1566. From the school of Dunbar he was removed to
St. Andrew's; after which, in 158-2, he visited England,
and was assisted, for nearly two years, in his theological
studies by the famous Hugh Broughton. On entering
into orders he became minister of Bothkenner, in the
county of Stirling, and next* at Perth, where his conduct
was so exemplary that James VI. appointed him Bishop
of Galloway, and dean of the Chapel Royal. He died in
1619, and in 1629 his works were published in London,
in one volume, folio.

cox, EICHARD.

Richard Cox was born at Whaddon, in Buckingham-
shire, in 1499, and was educated at Eton and at Kings
College, Cambridge. In 1525 he was appointed by
Wolsey a junior canon of Cardinal College, Oxford. He
was accounted one of the first scholars of his age. He
was attached to the small party of pious and learned men
who were at this time anxious to promote a reformation
in our Church, but in that Church at this time the
Romanists formed the dominant party, and young Cox
becoming obnoxious to the heads of houses in the univer-
sity, was deprived of his preferment and cast into prison
on a suspicion of heresy. When at length he was released
from prison, he became master of Eton College. He
rapidly obtained other preferments, and when it was
proposed to -convert the collegiate church of Southwell into
a bishopric, Cox was designed for that see. But though
the King promised to expend a portion of the money taken
from the monasteries in founding this and other sees, the
money was not forthcoming, and the King and his courtiers
spent the revenues of the Church on their selfish luxuries.
The sees projected were Dunstable, Colchester, Shrewrf-

VOL. IV. 2 A

238 COX.

bury, Bodmin, and Southwell. But Cox was not neglected,
for he became dean of Christ Church, and was soon after
appointed, through the interest of Archbishop Cranmer,
tutor to Priuce Edward. On that prince's accession to
the throne, he became a great favourite at court, and was
made a privy-counsellor, and the King's almoner. The
21st of May, 1547, he was elected chancellor of the univer-
sity of Oxford ; installed July 16, 1541, canon of Windsor;
and, the next year, made dean of Westminster. About
the same time he was appointed one of the commissioners
to visit the university of Oxford, in which he is accused of
having much abused his commission. In 1550, he was
ordered to go down into Sussex, and endeavour, by his
learned and atfecting sermons, to quiet the minds of the
people, who had been disturbed by the factious preaching
of Day, Bishop of Chichester, a violent papist. And when
the noble design of reforming the canon law was in agita-
tion, he was appointed one of the commissioners. Both
in this and the former reign, when an act passed for giving
all chantries, colleges, &c., to the King, through Dr. Cox's
powerful intercession, the colleges in both universities
were excepted out of that act.

When the Romish party came into power under Queen
Mary, Cox was committed to prison, but being soon after
released, he left the country and proceeded to Strasburg.
Here he learned with grief that the exiles at Frankfort
had laid aside the liturgy of the Church of England, and
adopted one on the Geneva model. It was concluded among
them, that the answering aloud after the minister should
not be used ; the litany, surplice, and many other things
also omitted, because in the reformed Churches abroad
such things would seem more than strange. It was far-
ther agreed upon, "that the minister, in the room of the
English confession, should use another, both of more
effect, and also framed according to the state and time ;
and the same ended, the people to sing a psalm in metre
in a plain tune, as was and is accustomed in the French,

cox. 239

Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Scottish Churches : that
done, the minister to pray for the assistance of God's
Holy Spirit, and so to proceed to the sermon. After the
sermon, a general prayer for all estates, and for England,
was also devised: at the end of which prayer was joined
the Lord's Prayer, and a rehearsal of the articles of the
belief ; which ended, the people to sing another psalm as
before. Then the minister pronouncing this blessing,
The peace of God, &c., or some other of like effect, the
people to depart. And as touching the ministration of
the Sacraments, sundry things were also by common con-
sent omitted, as superstitious and superfluous." They had
indeed submitted the liturgy of the Church to the celebrated
John Calvin, who presumptuously spoke of our book of
Common Prayer as retaining much of the dregs of popery,
and containing some tolerable fooleries, not considering
that no foolery is tolerable in the worship of Almighty
God.

Dr. Cox, with several other learned men, came to P' rank-
fort in March 1555, to settle the differences existing there
among the members of the English Church, who were
pushing their reforming principles to a vicious extreme.
They were determined to restore the English service.
Their first attempt was to introduce the repetition of the
responses, and undaunted by the opposition of these fa-
thers of puritanism, Dr. Cox directeclone of the clergy who
attended him to say the litany, while he and those who
came with him from Strasburg responded in a devout and
regular manner. This excited the indignation of the
notorious John Knox, who in the afternoon, when it was
his turn to preach, railed against the Book of Common
Prayer, calling it superstitious, impure, imperfect, and
popish, and aflBrming the present persecution to be a
judgment upon the Church of England for not having
reformed enough. For this he was justly rebuked by
Dr. Cox.

These differences being now come to a great height, it
was thought proper to fix a day, when both sides might

240 COX.

have an impartial hearing, and those matters be debated
at large. The Tuesday following was the day appointed ;
and when they were assembled, a motion was made, that
Dr. Cox, and his companions, might be allowed the privi-
lege of voting in the congregation. The puritans opposed
this with great vehemence ; and insisted, that the present
controversy should be first decided, and that they should
be obliged to subscribe the discipline, before they were
allowed that privilege. They also pretended, that some of
Dr. Cox's company, lay under the suspicion of having
been at mass in England, and that others had subscribed
the doctrines of the Church of Rome : by which malicious
slander, they thought, so to incense the congregation
against them, that they should not be allowed a farther
hearing. But this calumny was soon confuted ; the first
part of the charge being wholly false and groundless, and
the latter affecting none but Mr. Jewell, whose repentance
was as public as his offence : and therefore, though this
idle and wicked aspersion had at first made such impres-
sion on the congregation, that they withstood the admis-
sion of Dr. Cox and his friends ; yet when they had been
allowed to speak in their own vindication they cleared
themselves, so fully and satisfactory, from that imputa-
tion, that Knox himself entreated to have them admitted.
And now the majority being on their side, they declared
for the immediate restitution of the English liturgy ; and
forbad Knox, if he continued obstinate in his opposition
to it, to officiate any longer in the congregation.

Upon this Whittingham, a leading man among the
puritans, made his complaint to the senator Glauberge,
by whose means they had obtained the license for a
church ; and he interposing in the dispute, commanded
two of the most eminent of each side to be selected to
consult and agree upon a decent order for the public
service ; and when they had settled it to make a report of
their proceedings to him. On the Church side were ap-
pointed Dr. Cox and Mr. Lever ; and for the puritans
Knox and Whittingham. But when they came to a

cox. 241

conference, before they had gone through the morning
service, their differences grew so high (Dr. Cox strenu-
ously insisting on the restitution of the Uturgy, and
Knox and Whittingham obstinately rejecting it) that
the committee was forced to break up without effect.
The puritans immediately addressed the senate, making
grievous complaints against the Church party, and reflect-
ing severely on the obstinacy and incompliance of
Dr. Cox. By this address they so far prevailed as to
obtain an order from the magistrates that the congrega-
tion should conform, in doctrine and ceremonies, to the
French ; and that those who refused to submit should
quit the town.

Dr. Cox, who saw it was but lost labour at present to
strive against the stream, consented to comply with this
injunction of the magistrates, till he could have an oppor-
tunity of laying before them a clear and impartial account
of things, and convince them of the justice of his cause.
It was not long before he had the happiness to effect this :
and because Knox, by his fawning and dissembling, had
worked himself into their good esteem, and pretended to
be more zealously and heartily affected towards them than
any on the church side, he thought it expedient to detect
his hypocrisy, and give them a true idea of the spirit of
the man. This he did by shewing them a book written
by Knox, entituled "An Admonition to Christians;" in
which he had most bitterly reviled and abused the Em-
peror, calling him a worse enemy of Christ than Nero ;
and speaking many obnoxious things bordering on trea-
son. The magistrates, being willing to act impartially in
this affair, sent for Whittingham, Knoxs intimate friend,
and giving him the book with the passages which were
complained of marked out, they commanded him to bring
them an exact version of those passages into Latin by one
in the afternoon. When they had received his version,
and considered it, after a short deliberation they sent
Knox a command to depart the city ; otherwise they let
VOL. IV. 3b

2i3 COX.

him know thej should be obliged to deliver him tip to the
Emperor, if upon information concerning this pestilent
book he should send to demand him.

The banishment of Knox was a fatal blow to the
puritan faction, and they lost ground considerabl}' ; for a
petition being presented to the magistrates, subscribed by
three doctors, and thirteen bachelors of divinity, besides
diverse others of inferior degree, for the establishment of
the English liturgy, it was received in a most gracious
manner ; and the liturgy was commanded to be used by
all the English exiles ; and particular orders were given
to Whittingham, and bis party, not to presume to oppose,
or dispute against it. Whittingham, upon this, replied,
that he was willing to let them, who had such a fond
esteem for the book, enjoy the full and free use of it ; but
that he hoped, that himself, and his friends, might have
the liberty to join themselves to some other Church.
This indulgence. Dr. Cox foresaw, would be of most per-
nicious consequence; and therefore requested, that it
might not be allowed. At this Whittingham took tire,
and challenged him to a public disputation; but the
magistrates, who knew Whittingham's obstinate temper
and ungovernable passion, and had seen by his conduct at
the late conference how unlikely it was to bring him to
any reasonable accommodation, refused to suffer it. The
puritans, extremely mortified at these proceedings, applied
again to old Glauberge to interpose in their behalf ; but
he knew them too well now ever to be misled by their
artifices again, and gave them a flat denial.

On the ^8th of March, Dr. Cox, who had now gained
an entire victory, sent for all the English clergy to his
lodgings, and acquainting them with his success, proposed
to them to settle the church after the English order,
and to appoint and fix church officers. The puritans
exclaimed against the reception of the liturgy, and mur-
mured at tlie persons appointed to be officers in the
church ; but they were told that the common prayer was

cox. 243

established by the magistrates, under whose protection as
long as they continued it was their duty to obey them in
all things lawful ; and that the church was not to be left
unsettled and in disorder, to gratify their peevish and
perverse humours. When the affairs of the church were
regulated, Dr. Cox proceeded to form a kind of an univer-
sity ; and appointed a Greek and a Hebrew lecturer, a
divinity professor, and a treasurer for the contributions
remitted from England.

As soon as things were thus settled and composed, he
wrote to Calvin to give him an account of his proceedings,
and to excuse his not consulting with him in these affairs.
The letter was subscribed by fourteen of the chief of the
congregation. Calvin in his answer railed at the church
ceremonies, condemned their strict adherence to the
liturgy, and pressed them to comply with the scruples of
the dissenting party. And, indeed, what other answer
could be expected from a man who always was severe in
his censures upon whatever himself had not a principal
hand in ? But this answer of his taking no effect, the
puritan faction began to think of removing and setting up
separate congregations in another place ; and to vindicate
themselves from the guilt of schism, with which they were
charged, they wrote to the congregation, desiiing to have
the cause referred to four arbitrators, to whose decision
they would stand. This they were told was a most un-
reasonable request ; and that it would be great folly, when
every thing was settled in a regular and decent order,
to undo all again, and refer the decision to arbiters.
Dr. Cox farther told them that there was more of wilful-
ness and obstinacy in these pretended scruples of theirs
than real conscience ; and handsomely exposed their
ridiculous proposal of referring controversies in religion to
arbiters. He asked what they would think of them who,
in the disputes concerning the sacraments, predestination,
and free-will, should agree to choose four arbiters, and to
believe in those points whatever they should determine ?
and whether it was not as foolish and absurd to refer the

244 COX.

public worship of God, and the discipline of the Church,
to the same method of decision ? After this, some warm
words passed on both sides ; and the puritans departed in
a rage, and retired to Basil and Geneva.

Dr. Cox, hoping that all things were now well settled at
Frankfort, and that by their departure all future occasion
of religious disputes would be removed, withdrew to Stras-
burgh, for the satisfaction of conversing with Peter Martyr,
with whom he had contracted an intimate friendship at
Oxford, and whom he loved and honoured for his great
learning and moderation.

After the death of Queen Mary he returned to Eng-
land ; and was one of those divines who were appointed
to review the liturgy : and when a disputation was to
be held at Westminster, between the papists and the
reformed clergy, he was the chief champion against the
Romish bishops. He preached often before Queen Eliza-
beth in Lent ; and in his sermon at the opening of her
first parliament, in most affecting terms exhorted them to
restore religion to its primitive purity, and discharge all
the popish innovations and corruptions. These excellent
discourses, and the great zeal he had shewn in defence of
the English liturgy at Frankfort, so effectually recom-
mended him to the Queen, that she rewarded his great
services by noDiinating him to the see of Ely, vacant
by the deprivation of Thirlby. Before his consecration
he joined with Dr. Parker, the elect Archbishop of Can-
terbury, and the elect Bishops of London, Chichester, and
Hereford, in a petition to the Queen against an act lately
passed, for the alienating and exchanging the lands and
revenues of the bishops ; and sent her diverse arguments,
from Scripture and reason, against the lawfulness of it,
observing withal the many evils and inconveniences both
to Church and State, which would be the fatal conse-
quences thereof. He was consecrated at Lambeth, on the
'21st of December, 1559.

This see he filled more than one and twenty years ; and
was all that time one of the chief pillars and ornamenta

cox. '245

of our Church. He was very serviceable both to Arch-
bishop Parker and his successor Grindal; and by his
prudence and industry contributed to the regular resti-
tution of our reformed Church to that beauty and good
order which it had before enjoyed in the reign of King
Edward. He was indeed no great favourite of the Queen;
but that is to be imputed to his zealous opposition to her
retaining the crucifix on the altar of the Royal Chapel,
and his strenuous defence of the lawfulness of the mar-
riage of the clergy, against which the Queen had con-
tracted a most inveterate and unaccountable prejudice.
He was a great patron to all learned men whom he found
well affected to the Church ; and shewed a singular esteem
for Dr. Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,
whom he made his chaplain, and gave him the rectory of
Teversham in Cambridgeshire, and a prebend of Ely. He
did his utmost to obtain a reformation of the ecclesiastical
laws (which was drawn up by Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop
Ptidley, and other learned divines, of whom himself was
one, in the latter end of King Edward's reign) established
by the authority of parliament ; but through the unreason-
able opposition of some of the chief courtiers this noble
design miscarried a third time.

As he had, in his exile at Frankfort, been the chief
champion against the factious innovations of the puritans,
so he now continued, with the same vigour and resolution,
to oppose their turbulent and seditious attempts against
the discipline and ceremonies of the Church He laboured
by gentle usage and learned arguments to bring back the
seduced ; and by timely and wholesome severities to quell
and suppress the obstinate and incorrigible.

When the schism at Frankfort was settled Dr. Cox
retired to Strasburgh, till the death of Mary, when he
returned to his native land.

He reviewed and corrected the writings of Whitgift
against Cartwright — (See Life of Carticrir/ht and Whit-
gift) — and when Gaulter, the calvinist, wrote against

2b 2

246 COX.

pressing the catholic ceremonies still retained in our
church, he addressed to him a letter from which the fol-
lowing is an extract :

" I wish indeed you had not lent so ready an ear to a
few of our somewhat factious brethren. And it were to be
desired that a man of your piety had not so freely given
an opinion, before you had fully understood the rise and
progress of our restoration of religion in England. There
was formerly published by command of King Edward of
pious memory, and with the advice and opinion of those
excellent men. Master Bucer, and Master Peter Martyr,
then residing in England, a book of common prayer and
sacraments for the use of the Church of England. But
now, as soon as our illustrious Queen Elizabeth had suc-
ceeded to the kingdom, she restored this holy little book
to the Church of England, with the highest sanction of
the whole kingdom. At that time no office or function of
religion was committed to us who now preside over the
churches ; but when we were called to the ministry of the
churches, we embraced that book with open arms, and not
without thanks to God who had preserved for us such a
treasure, and restored it to us in safety. For we know
that this book ordains nothing contrary to the word of
God.

" It will not be foreign to the subject to state what
Master Peter Martyr of pious memory wrote to us when
exiles at Frankfort. ' I find nothing,' he says, speaking of
this book, ' in that book contrary to godliness. We know
that some contentious men have cavilled at and calum-
niated it. Such persons ought rather to have remem-
bered that our Lord is not a God of contention, but of
peace.' Had you been aware of these circumstances,
Master Gaulter, you would not have been so alarmed, as
you say you are, lest after the imposition of the habits
some greater evil might ensue. The statements indeed,
which are whispered in your ears by the contentious, are
inoit absurd : for instance, that besides the habits many

cox. 247

other things are to be obtruded on the Church; and that
there are some who make an hriproper use of the name of
the Queen ; and moreover, that the ministers who refuse
to subscribe to the injunctions of certain individuals, are
to be turned out of the churches : just as if there were any
persons in England who would dare to frame laws by their
private authority, and propound them for the obedience
of their bretliren. But this is not only false, but injuri-
ous both to the Queen and. the ministei's of the word, to
wit, that we may humour her royal highness, and make
her more decided in ordering every thing according to her
own pleasure. But far be any one from suspecting any
thmg of the kind in so godly and religious a personage,
who has always been so exceedingly scrupulous in deviat-
ing even in the slightest degree from the laws prescribed.
Moreover, she is in the habit of listening with the greatest
patience to bitter and sufficiently cutting discourses.
Again, far be it that the ministers of the word should be
said to have foully degenerated into base flattery. We
indeed do not as yet know of any one who has abused
either your authority, Gaulter, or that of any godly
fathers, in approval of the popish dress, which we seri-
ously reject and condemn equally with themselves. Nor
is it true that we have obtruded any thing upon our bre-
thren out of the pope's kitchen. The surplice was used
in the Church of Christ long before the introduction of
popery. But these things are proposed by us as having
been sanctioned by the laws, not as the papists abused
them to superstition, but only for distinction, that order
and decency may be preserved in the ministry of the word
and sacraments. And neither good pastors nor pious lay-
men are offended at these things.

" You seem to take it ill that the bishops w^ere ap-
pointed to the management of these matters. Nay, you
seem to insinuate, from the parable of Christ, (Matt. xxiv.
49,) that we are perfidious, drunken, and smiters of our
fellow-servants; as if we approved the figments of the
superstitious courtiers, and treated the godly ministers

248 COX.

with severity, and exhibited ourselves as the ministers of
intemperate rashness. You thought that we should defend
the cause of such ministers.

" These imputations are very hard, and very far from
the truth. Has not the management and conservation of
ecclesiastical rites, from the very origin of a well-consti-
tuted church, been at all times under the especial control
of bishops ? Have not the despisers and violators of such
rites been rebuked and brought into order by the bishops ?
Let the practice of the holy Church be referred to, and it
will be evident that this is the truth. And it would cer-
tainly be most unjust to number those who now discharge
the episcopal office, among the perfidious or the drunken.
You candidly and truly confess, Master Gaulter, that
there are some among those brethren who are a little
morose; and you might add too, obstreperous, conten-
tious, rending asunder the unity of a well-constituted
Church, and everywhere handing up and down among the
people a form of divine worship concocted out of their own
heads ; that book, in the mean time, composed by godly
fathers, and set forth by lawful authority, being altogether
despised and trodden under foot. In addition to this,
they inveigh in their sermons, which are of too popular a
character, against the popish filth and the monstrous
habits, which, they exclaim, are the ministers of impiety
and eternal damnation. Nothing moves them, neither
the authority of the state, nor of our Church, nor of her
most serene majesty, nor of brotherly warning, nor of
pious exhortation. Neither have they any regard to our
weaker brethren, who are hitherto smoking like flax, but
endeavour dangerously to inflame their minds. These
our brethren will not allow us to imitate the prudence of
Paul, w4io became all things to all men, that he might
gain some. Your advice, and that especially of the
reverend fathers Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Henry
Bullinger, can have no weight with these men. We are
undeservedly branded with the accusation of not having
performed our duty, because we do not defend the cause

cox. 24g

of those whom we regard as disturbers of peace and reli-
gion ; and who by the vehemence of their harangues have
so maddened the wretched multitude, and driven some of
them to that pitch of frenzy, that they now obstinately
refuse to enter our churches, either to baptize their child-
ren, or to partake of the Lord's Supper, or to hear sermons.
They are entirely separated both from us and from those
good brethren of ours ; they seek bye paths ; they establish
a private religion, and assemble in private houses, and
there perform their sacred rites, as the Donatists of old,
and the Anabaptists now ; and as also our papists, who
run up and down the cities, that they may somewhere or
other hear mass in private. This indeed is too disgusting,
to connect our Queen with the pope."

This zealous Anglican Prelate was the chief supporter
of Archbishop Parker, whom he exhorted to go on vigor-
ously in reclaiming and restraining the puritans, and not
to sink or be disheartened at the frowns of those court-
favourites who protected them ; assuring him that he
might expect the blessing of God on his pious labours to
free the Church from their dangerous attempts, and to
restore its unity, and establish uniformity. And when
the privy council interposed in favour of the puritans, and
endeavoured to screen them from punishment, he wrote a
bold letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh ; in which he
warmly expostulated with the council for meddling in the
affairs of the Church, which ought to be left to the deter-
mination of the bishops ; admonished them to keep them-
selves within their own sphere ; and acquainted them with
his design of appealing to the Queen, if they continued to
interpose in matters not belonging to them.

This zeal of the good bishop in defence of the Church
was, in all probability, the occasion why the Lord North,
and some other of the courtiers, endeavoured to rob him
of his best manors ; and on his absolute refusal to alien-
ate, or give them aw^ay, did their utmost to incense the
Queen against him, and get him deprived. They examined
his whole conduct from his first accession to that see ; and

S50 COX.

drew up a large body of articles against him : but the bishop,
in his reply, so fully vindicated himself from all asper-
sions, and so clearly confuted their groundless and mali-
cious calumnies, that the Queen was forced to confess him
innocent. Notwithstanding which, perceiving the malice
of his enemies to be implacable, and that there was no
possibility of reclaiming them from their sacrilegious de-
signs, he wrote of his own accord to the Queen, begging of
her to give him leave to resign. His great age and infirm
state of health made him the more earnest in his petition :
and his resignation would have been certainly accepted if
they could have found any other divine of note who would
have taken the see on their terms. The first offer of it was
made to Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich ; and on his re-
fusal it was proffered to several others : but the conditions
were so ignominious and base that they all rejected it :
by which means Bishop Cox continued in it till his death,
which happened on the 22nd of July, 1581, in the eighty-
second year of his age. The see continued vacant near
twenty years after his death ; during which time there is
no doubt but those sacrilegious designs, which he so reso-
lutely opposed, were executed with a high hand.
His works, chiefly published after his decease, are,

1. "An Oration at the beginning of the Disputation of
Dr. Tresham and others with Peter Martyr."

2. "An Oration at the conclusion of the same ;" both
in Latin, and printed in 1549, 4to, and afterwards among
Peter Martyr's works. The second is also printed in the
Appendix to Strype's Life of Cranmer.

'6. He had a great hand in compiling the first Liturgy
of the Church of England : and was one of the chief
persons employed in the review of it in 1559.

4. He turned into verse the Lord's Prayer, commonly
printed at the end of Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalms, a
composition which will not bear modern criticism.

5. When a new Translation of the Bible was made in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, now commonly known by
the name of the Bishop's Bible, the Four Gospels, the

CRADOCK. 251

Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistle to the Romans, were
allotted to him, for his portion.

6. He wrote, " Resolutions of some Questions concern-
ing the Sacraments ;" in the collection of records at the
end of Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation.

7. He had a hand in the " Declaration concerning the
functions and divine institution of Bishops and Priests,"
and in the " Answers to the ' Queries concerning some
abuses of the Mass.' "

8. Several letters and small pieces of his have been
published by Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation,
and Lives of the four Archbishops ; and he is said to have
assisted in Lilly's Grammar. A letter written by him in
1569, directed to the parson of Downham, and found in
the parish chest of that place, was some years ago pub-
lished in the Gentleman's Magazine. It relates chiefly to
the state and condition of the poor, before the statutes of
the 14th and 43rd of Queen Elizabeth were enacted ; and
shews that the bishop was animated with a very laudable
zeal for engaging persons of wealth and substance to
contribute liberally, cheerfully, and charitably, to their
indigent neighbours. — Downes. Brief Discourse of the
Troubles at Frankfort. Zurich Letters.

CRADOCK, SAMUEL,

Samuel Cradock was born in 1620, and educated at
Emanuel College, Cambridge, of which he became fellow,
and was presented to the rectory of North Cadbury, in
Somersetshire, from whence he was ejected for non-con-
formity in 1662. After this he settled at Bishop Stortford,
in Hertfordshire, where he died in 1706. His works are,

1. Knowledge and Practice, a System of Divinity, folio.

2. The Harmony of the Evangelists, folio. 3. The Apos-
tolical History, folio. 4. The Old Testament Methodized,
8 vols, folio. 5. An Exposition of the Revelations.—
Calamy.

252 CRANMER.

CRADOCK, ZACHARY.

Zachart Cradock, brother of the preceding, was born
in 1633. He was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge,
and in 1672 was appointed provost of Eton, in opposi-
tion to Waller, the poet. He died in 1695. Dr. Cradock
published two sermons, one on Providence, and the other
on the Design of Christianity. — Gen. Biog. Diet,

CRANMER, THOMAS.

Thomas Cranmer was born July 2nd, 1489, at Aslacton,
in the county of Nottingham, and at fourteen years of age
was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, by his mother, his
father being dead. At the age of twenty-two he married
and forfeited the fellowship he had obtained in his college,
to which, however, on his wife's death, the year after, he
was restored. He was offered promotion in Cardinal
Wolsey's College at Oxford, which he, for some unknown
reason, declined, but the offer proves the estimation in
which he was held in his own university. Proceeding to
the degree of D.D. he was, in 1526, appointed one of the
public examiners of theology in the university. At this
time there were several pious men in the university who,
from the study of the Scriptures and the early fathers, as
well as from the instructions of Erasmus, were anxious to
see the Church of England reformed, but the spirit of
Romanism had so thoroughly pervaded the Church, that
to this new school, which was prepared to oppose Romish
peculiarities, whenever discovered to be such, a great
opposition was raised. Dr. Cranmer, though naturally
timid and cautious, was on the reforming side, and was
ready to adopt any lawful measures for ridding the coun-
try of papal usurpation.

About this period Henry the Vlllth felt, or affected to
feel, compunction of conscience, for having married his
brother's widow, the amiable, the pious, the devoted

CRANMER. 253

€atherine. If his passion for Anne Boleyn did not give
rise to his feelings, with respect to the divorce, and the
facts of history seem to shew that he had entertained
them before he was acquainted with her, there can le
no doubt that this circumstance decided his iniquitous
course.

It was not hkely that Dr. Cranmer -would at this time
be acquainted with the virtues of the exemplary Catherine,
or with the heartless intrigues of the giddy girl, who
thought to rise upon her ruin. The question of the
King's divorce assumed both a political and a religious
aspect, for it involved a question of papal authority. It is
not to be wondered at, that those who thought that the
whole of that authority, as exercised over the Church of
England, was a usurpation, should enter eagerly upon
the subject when the King was beginning to dispute that
authority on a particular point. Let the authority be
shaken on one point, it would soon be shaken on others
also. This seems to have been the feeling in Dr. Cran-
mer's mind, when at the house of Mr. Cressy, Waltham
Abbey, Essex, he met Edward Fox, the King's almoner,
and Stephen Gardiner, the King's secretary. In the
course of conversation he delivered it as his opinion that
it would be better " to have the question whether a man
may marry his brother's wife or no, decided and discussed
by the divines, and by the authority of the Word of Gcd,
than thus from year to year to prolong the time by having
recourse to the pope ; that there was but one truth in it,
which the Scriptures would soon declare and manifest,
being handled by learned men, and that it might as well
be done in England, in the universities here, as at Rome,
or elsewhere." This opinion being reported by these
official personages to the King, Dr. Cranmer was sum-
moned to the royal presence, and taken into favour. He
was directed to write a book on the divorce, which he did,
residing at the time with Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wilt-
shire. When he had finished the book, in which he

VOL. IV. 2 c

254 CRANMER

asserted that the pope could not dispense with the Word
of God ; he went to Cambridge, where he brought many
persons over to his view of the subject. He was made
Kings chaplain, and Archdeacon of Taunton. From that
time there seems to have existed a personal attachment
between Henrj and Cranmer. It is difficult to account
for the fact, that Cranmer escaped the destruction or
disgrace which was destined for most of those who
had been at any time favourites with Henry, except
on the supposition that Henry perceived that, while
others were serving him to promote their selfish ends,
Cranmer was really attached to his person. Nor may
we wonder that such a person as the gentle-spirited and
pure-minded Cranmer should become attached to the
King ; for the viler traits of Henry's character were
only gradually brought to hght ; and much may have
been concealed from Cranmer when primate. There
was much in Henry's personal address to conciliate
esteem, for he was, in spite of his vices, during great part
of his reign, a popular sovereign. And we all know how
apt the mind is to make allowances for the worst charac-
ters, when by frequent intercourse we find something
good in them, which is unknown to those who only see
the coarser features ; and this kind of weakness, which
renders it so dangerous to associate with a wicked per-
son, is only increased when that person is a king, and
that king a benefactor. The more vigorous mind of the
bluff Henry may have overawed the yielding spirit of
Cranmer.

Cranmer was sent as ambassador to Rome, where he pre-
sented to the pope the book before alluded to, in which
he had proved that the pope had no authority to dis-
pense with the Word of God. He offered to dispute
against the validity of Henry's marriage, but he found
no opponent. He was, however, civilly treated, and the
pope made him grand penitentiary throughout England,
Ireland, and Wales. He was sent also to Germanj on

CRANMER. Q5ti

the same affair ; and in 1532 concluded a treaty of com-
merce between England and the Low Countries. During
his residence in Germany he married a second time, and
had for his wife Anne, niece of Osiander.

In 1532, on the death of Archbishop Warham,
Dr. Cranmer was fixed upon by Henry for his successor
in the metropolitan see of Canterbury. Much has been
written about his unwillingness to accept the appoint-
ment, some asserting, and some doubting his sincerity.
No one can suppose that Cranmer was not an expectant
of preferment; high in favour with the King, and em-
ployed in affairs of the first importance, he must have felt
secure on that point ; and this very circumstance would
render him the less willing to undertake so dangerous
and difficult a post as that of the primacy. He must have
seen that things could not remain as they were ; and
while he felt it his duty to support the movement party,
he was himself a quiet, unambitious, rather self-indulgent
person ; not by nature qualified to be either a leader or a
martyr. Nothing could be more probable than that such
a person should linger and delay as much as possible, —
in the hope that in the meantime something else might
fall vacant better suited to his desire of domestic comfort.
Henry, however, was not a person to be disobeyed ; it was
indeed equally dangerous to accept or to refuse a favour at
his hands. And by the command of Henry, Cranmer
became Archbishop of Canterbury. Much has been written
on the subject of the protest he uttered previously to his
taking an oath of fidelity to the pontiff. It is not a plea-
sant passage in his life, but it is only one out of the
many instances which are on record of his weakness. He
stated to the King his opinion that since of the Church of
England, he regarded the King, not the pope, as the
supreme head, — (an error quite as bad as that which
allots the headship to the pope) — the oath of fidelity
should be taken only to his majesty. And it was a kind
of compromise between Cranmer and the King, suggested

256 CRANMER.

by the lawyers, that he should take the papal oath, but
under protest. There is no doubt now that, contrary to
the statements of papal writers, the protest was made
publicly.

One of the first acts of the new primate was to pro-
nounce sentence of divoree upon the pious and exem-
plary Catherine. However much we may pity the injured
Queen, the subject of the divorce had been fully can-
vassed, and there can be no doubt that Cranmer acted
conscientiously. His next act was to crown her thought-
less, heartless successor, Anne Boleyn; though he expressly
declares that he had nothing to do with her hasty, secret,
and indecent marriage with Henry.

In this year, 1533, he sat in judgment upon one Frith,
who was condemned to the stake for refusing to speak of
the corporeal presence of Christ within the host and sacra-
ment of the altar as necessary to be believed. Although
the penalties of the law were enforced, Cranmer, with his
usual benevolence, endeavoured most earnestly to persuade
the poor man to recant.

After this he held a visitation of his diocese, where he
found the clergy to be a divided body ; some maintaining
with more zeal than discretion, the new doctrines, as they
were called, of the universities ; others wishing to keep
the Church as it then was, and as strongly attached to the
Romish interpretation of our formularies as some persons
now are to the calvinistic interpretation of them. When
there is a disagreement as to principles, the disagreement
is manifested generally by their application to some one
subject of general interest ; and the subject of discussion
among the clergy now related to the royal divorce and
marriage. If the reforming party in bur church had the
best of the argument when contending against the papal
supremacy, they must at the same time have found it.
difficult to defend the King's indecent marriage, which
would seem to be the result, not of principle, but of appe-
tite. Such difficulties are frequently experienced, and

CRANMER. Ji57

men defend what is wrong lest they should injure a good
cause, hoping and believing that there is some palliation
for the wrong conduct of those who advocate right prin-
ciples, though at the time unknown. Cranmer's mode of
putting an end to the controversy would not be approved
in the present day. He restrained both parties from
preaching.

The Archbishop this year had the honour to be god-
father to the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards the celebrated
Queen ; and the pope threatening him with excommuni-
cation on account of his sentence against Queen Catherine,
he appealed to a general council. In 1534 he acted on
the same principle, and through his influence acts of par-
liament were passed, abolishing the papal supremacy.
In convocation this year it was declared by both houses,
that the pope had no greater authority in this country
than any other foreign prelate, and Cranmer, in conse-
quence, altered his title, removing the words apostolicae
sedis legatus, and inserting metropolitanus. Thus did
the clergy declare, that the power exercised over our
Church by the pope was a usurpation. It was ordered
that the pope's name should be struck out of the offices of
the Church, and in the bidding prayer they were directed
to teach the people to pray for " our Sovereign Lord
Henry VIIL, being immediate, next to God, the only and
supreme head of this our Catholic Church of England."
The complete and easy manner in which this great change
was eifected is, as Mr. Soames observes, worthy of remark.
On the last day of March, Archbishop Cranmer proposed
to the convocation of his province the following question :
Has the Roman bishop conferred upon him by God any
greater jurisdiction in this kingdom than any other foreign
bishop ? In the upper house this question was unani-
mously decided in the negative : in the lower house four
members only voted in the affirmative, and one doubted.
Even this inconsiderable degree of dissent was not mani-
fested by the clergy of the northern province. The con-

2c 2

258 CRANMER.

vocation assembled at York unanimously, after diligent
inquiry and mature deliberation, determined the question
in the negative. The same question was submitted to the
two universities, and they also came, without a single dis-
sentient voice, to the same determination. These learned
bodies did not, however, deny the principles which they
had been used to inculcate, with undue haste, or without
sufficient investigation. They examined the matter re-
ferred to them in public disputations, and the conclusion
to which they came was such as they found themselves
unable to elude. In their judgment the less distin-
guished ecclesiastical corporations also concurred, and
thus the whole clergy of England renounced, almost
without a struggle, the foreign authority to which the
Church had been long used to bow : a convincing proof
that the arguments upon which this alien interference is-
founded will not bear the test of diligent and impartial
inquiry.

In 1535, the Archbishop submitted to the disgrace of
having a layman placed over him in ecclesiastical affairs.
Thomas Cromwell, a worldly minded, jobbing advocate
of the reforming party, who seems to have exercised con-
siderable influence over the undecided and unsuspect-
ing mind of the Archbishop, was made vicar-general,
or vice-gereot, and took precedence of both Archbishops.
We must not blame Archbishop Cranmer very severely
for this, — his notion was, however mistaken, yet sincere ;
that the King had succeeded to all the authority which
the pope had heretofore exercised, excepting only the
power of officiatiug in church, and he received Cromwell
as the Sovereign's representative. Although we, at a dis
tant period, perceive this to have been a mistake, yet the
position was anomalous, and we must make due allow-
ance. We may regret that one of firmer principles
was not archbishop at the time to establish his rights ;
but we cannot censure Cranmer, because, when placed
in ver}' difficult circumstances, he was too meek and
diffident.

CRANMER. 259

In the convocation of this year certain articles of reli-
gion were set forth, in which the clergy were required to
teach all things contained in the Scriptures, and the three
creeds, and to condemn all things contrary thereto, as
they had been condemned in the first four general
councils. As the pope was about to hold a council
at MaDtua, in which it was probable the proceedings
in Eugland would be censured, a remonstrance was
signed by the convocation, in which it was declared
that neither the Bishop of Rome, nor any one prince,
without the consent of others, could assemble a general
council.

Cromwell, well knowing that nothing would so tend to
preserve his authority as devising means for replenishing
the funds of his master, proposed this year to dissolve the
lesser monasteries, on the plea of their attachment to
Rome. With the exception of Cromwell, Henry, and the
dissolute courtiers, the other reformers endeavoured to
prevent the suppression from being general, or at least to
convert the revenues to ecclesiastical purposes. Cranmer
wished them to be devoted to the formation of new
bishoprics. A visitation of the monasteries, in the King s
name, was appointed ; the Archbishop being inhibited
from interfering. The visitation was conducted in
the most unjust and tyrannical manner, although, with-
out doubt, into many of the religious houses great abuses
had crept ; only the lesser monasteries were dissolved at
this time.

In 1536 the tyrant King, who is the disgrace of the
Reformation, having fallen in love with Jane Seymour,
determined to rid himself of Anne Boleyn. There is a
characteristic letter extant of Cranmer's to the King upon
the proceedings against the Queen. It is cautious,
courtier-like, and so worded as not to give offence ; but
there is an attempt to say something in favour of the
Queen, though not enough to bring the writer into dis-
grace, Cranmer, who had not the spirit of St. Ambrose

no CRANMER

to resist a tyrant, pronounced a sentence of divorce against
the Queen, but on what grounds it does not appear.

In 1537 was published the Institution of a Christian
Man. It was called the Bishop's Book, because drawn
up chiefly by their authority. Cranmer was at this time
much annoyed by slanders and various calumnies, which
were heaped upon him by those who were opposed to the
movement ; and they are merely mentioned here to notice
the meekness and gentleness with which the Archbishop
remonstrated with the offenders, at a time when he had
the power to commit them to prison. To his great joy,
what may be called the first version of Scripture author-
ized by our Church, was published this year. What is
called Cranmer s, or the great Bible, was published in
1539, of which the King granted, at Cranmer s interces-
sion, a free and liberal use.

In the year 1538 the shrine of Thomas a Becket in
our Archbishop's own cathedral w^as destroyed, and it was
followed by the destruction of other shrines ; — the im-
postures practised by a low and degraded class of the
clergy were many and great, and on being exposed must
have strengthened the hands of the new^ school, which was
certainly gaining ground in our church. Some envoys from
the protestant princes of Germany, expecting from these
circumstances to win Henry over to their side, were now
in England on Cranmer's invitation ; they had discussions
with the Archbishop and some of our other divines, both
with respect to the Romish impositions and with respect
also to the articles of the Confession of Augsburg. But
they do not seem to have made any great impression
upon the chief persons in our church, and they left the
country evidently disappointed. Even Cranmer took parti
in the trial of Lambert soon after, who was consigned to
the flames, for lefusing to admit the doctrine of transub-
Btantiation.

Towards the close of Henry's reign the Romish party
in our church came into power, and nothing but the

CRANMER. 261

King's personal attachment to Cranmer saved him.
Bishop Gardiner was in the royal favour, and the Duke
of Norfolk was prime minister. As is too often the case
wdth political parties, they purchased peace by the sacri-
fice of principle, and by purchasing the King's favour at a
disgraceful price. If Cromwell and the reforming party
are to blame for destroying the lesser monasteries, they
have at least the excuse to urge in their favour, that if
they sometimes exaggerated defects, they certainly found in
many instances very scandalous abuses. It was by the
Romish party that the measure for the destruction of the
greater monasteries was carried ; the reformers now in
opposition, only contending against the appropriation of
the revenues to the sole use of the King. They wished
them to be bestowed upon hospitals, grammar schools,
and cathedrals, under new regulations. They did in part
succeed ; but the revenues intended for the promotion of
piety were for the most part squandered by Henry and
his profligate courtiers. The loss to the poor was great;
not only because the monks were more charitable than the
courtiers, maintaining all the poor in their district, but
because the property was public property, i. e. property in
which many persons had a share, and to the possession of
which the poorest man might rise. If it were an evil that
the property became so large ; it is admitted. It is an
evil, and causes discontent, that one man, whether peer
or commoner, should have a fortune of a hundred thou-
sand a year. But it is a greater evil, — an evil which
would be attended with worse results, to take his fortune
from him : therefore he is j)ermitted to retain it. But
the poor have no defenders : their property was seized,
and for years the country suffered from the act of in-
justice. That the system of monasteries had done its
work, that the corruptions were great, that a radical
reform was necessary, no one acquainted with ecclesi-
astical history can doubt. We only regret that what had
been given to the poor had not been reserved in soma

262 CRANMER.

way to be a blessing to the million, instead of being
devoted to the support of Henry's courtiers and their
descendants.

It is much to be regretted that, by the spoliation of the
Church, Cranmer, among other courtiers, sought to enrich
his family. King Edward the Vlth, in the tirst year of
his reign, granted among other estates all the demesne
lands in Horsforth, belonging to the monastery of Kirk-
stall, the ruins of which are still the ornament of the
parish of Leeds, to Archbishop Cranmer. And in the
fourth year of the same reign, the same archbishop
obtained a license to alienate these lands to one Peter
Hammond, and others, to the use of Thomas Cranmer his
eldest son, and his heirs. This alienation of church
property during the royal ministry, and when the arch-
bishop's influence, as one of the regency, must have been
great, will ever be a reflection upon his grace's character,
while it betrays a worldliness of mind which his piety was
unable to overcome.

In 1539, both in convocation and in parliament, the
Romish party of the Church of England had so far gained
the ascendancy, as to obtain the enactment of the memor-
able six articles, the first of which asserted the popish
view of transubstantiation ; the second defended half
communion, the third enforced clerical celibacy, the
fourth related to vows of chastity, the sixth insisted on
auricular confession.

The most honorable and the boldest step ever taken by
Cranmer, was his arguing in the negative against most of
these propositions, in spite of the King's support of them.
His opposition was energetic, and it was made under a
sovereign who could ill brook opposition, and therefore at
the peril of his life.

But this was succeeded by conduct the most cowardly
and disgraceful. Both parties in the Church of England,
the Romish under Gardiner, and the reforming under
Cranmer, assented to the divorce of Ann of Cleves, on th^

CRANMER. 265

ground that the King had not inivardly consented to the
marriage. It was sanctioned by convocation, and thus
the whole Church was involved in the disgrace. The dis-
grace and execution of Cromwell soon followed. The
tenderness of Crauraer's nature induced him to plead for
the man who, however unworthy, had been so long his
friend ; but his was the cautious pleading of a courtier.
He did not speak for the man whom he believed to be
innocent with the boldness of the ancient fathers, but,
courtier-like, he said ; " I loved him as my friend, for so
I took him to be ; but I chiefly loved him for the love
which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your grace
singularly above all other. But now if he be traitor I am
sorry I ever loved him or trusted him, and am very glad
his treason is discovered in time." However cleverly
turned this may be, it is nevertheless far from the style
in which we should have wished an archbishop to write.
And we must add, that on the second and third readings
of the bill of attainder against Cromwell, Cranmer offered
no dissent.

He was at this time employed in discussing the seve-
ral articles of the Book, which was published in 1543,
"A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of Christian Men," it
was a revision, but not an improvement of the Institution.
The Institution had been sanctioned by convocation, the
Erudition had only the authority of the King. Cranmer
took the lowest possible view of ecclesiastical offices at this
time, and instead of acting with the freedom of a Christian
Bishop, he wrote at the end of the first of the answers
forwarded to the King, " This is my opinion and sentence
at this present ; which I do not temerariously define, but
remit the judgment thereof wholly unto your Ma-jesty."
We can scarcely conceive any thing more dastardly than
such a sentence addressed by an Archbishop to a profligate
layman.

In the convocation of 15*2, the Romish party made
another attempt to stay the progress of Scrijitural know-

2^4 CRANMER.

ledge. Existing English versions of the Bible were
again loudly decried as incorrect, and it was repre-
sented that, in justice to the people, a new revision
of the sacred volume was imperiously required. The
propriety of such a measure not being denied by the
reforming party. Bishop Gardiner proposed that in
the new translation about one hundred terms, which
he said the English tongue could not adequately ex-
press, should be rendered into Latin. The convocation,
however, refrained from compromising its character by
mocking the nation with the offer of a translation of
the Bible rather tending to embarrass than to inform
the popular mind. It was at first proposed that the
Bishops should severally undertake to revise portions of
the sacred volume ; but, as from their obvious leaning
towards the Romish policy, there was reason to doubt
their zeal in such an employment, Cranmer moved, that
the desired revision should be confided to the two univer-
sities. This proposal elicited fresh opposition from tlie
Romanizers. All the Bishops, except Goodrich of Ely,
and Barlow of St. David's, protested against it. The
reputation for learning formerly enjoyed by the universities,
it was asserted, had been much impaired of late ; and the
men who then took the lead at those celebrated seminaries
were described as very unequal, both from unripeness of
age and from want of judgment, to prepare such an edition
of the sacred writers as might justly claim the confidence
of Englishmen. By these representations, however, the
primate was wholly unmoved. He had obtained the
King's concurrence in his plan, and the convocation did
not eventually presume to dispute such high authority.
But the triumph gained led to no result. Whatever were
the cause, nothing is known to have been done by the
universities at this time towards perfecting the English
Bible ; and the whole debate is only deserving of notice,
inasmuch as it furnishes, not one of the least remarkable
of the many instances, which shew the unwillingness of

CRANMER. 265

Romanists to allow a free comparison of their tenets with
the declarations of that volume which alone forms the
universally recognized, and unquestionably safe standard
of a Christians faith.

Cranmer had also the merit of drawing the attention of
this convocation to the absurd honours which images still
continued to receive. The clumsy attempts to decorate
these objects, in which vulgar superstition yet found a
vent, were now formally condemned ; and the saints of
stone, or wood, were for the future to be deprived of their
silken vests, and glimmering tapers. Besides obliging
the clergy to clear their churches of these unsightly fop-
peries, the Archbishop proposed a revision of the ritual.
He urged the propriety of expunging from the public ser-
vice all mention of the pope, and of saints not recorded in
Scripture, or in authentic authors ; all legendary tales,
and every other matter which would not bear to be con
fronted with the undoubted Word of God. This proposal,
however, appears to have been rather coldly received
With omitting all mention of the pope, of Becket, and ot
some other Romish saints, the clergy generally were dis-
posed to rest satisfied. Another year, therefore, was
allowed to pass away, and still the service-book was found
to vary but very inconsiderably from its old state. At the
expiration of that period, Cranmer acquainted the convo-
cation that he was the bearer of his majesty's commands,
enjoining an immediate revision of the liturgy. In conse-
quence of this message it was voted, that the Bishops of
Ely and Sarum, together with six assistants, three for
each prelate, to be selected from the lower house, should
be charged to fulfil the royal pleasure. The inferior
clergy, however, declined the nomination of any members
from their own body for this purpose ; and the projected
revisal was either not attempted at all, or very slightly
performed. Indeed, to the end of Henry's reign, the
liturgical books in use before his rupture with Rome, were
allowed, with a few omissions or erasures, to direct the

VOL. lY. 2d

•266 CRANMER.

public devotions. Another motion of the protestant party,
offered to the convocation of this year, also failed of
success. The Lord Chancellor Audley submitted to the
consideration of the upper house a bill, which he proposed
to lay before parliament, intended to enable married men
to act as chancellors in the diocesan courts, and to exer-
cise in an effective manner the functions of that ofiQce.
This bill, however, was highly disapproved by the
prelates ; and, by their instances, the chancellor was in-
(Juced to abandon the design of introducing it to the
house of lords.

Amidst this stiffness in maintaining established usages,
the upper house of convocation was not wholly unmindful
of a more liberal policy. It was ordered there, that on
every Sunday and holiday throughout the year, the offi-
ciating minister of every parish should read to his con-
gregation a chapter, in English, out of the Bible, after
the Te Veum and Magnificat. He was not, however, to
accompany his reading by any comment ; and he wa»
to read in succession all the chapters in the Sacred
Volume.

In his visitation, in 1543, the Archbishop found the
clergy much divided : some had neglected to proclaim the
royal supremacy, while others of the new school, and
among them Ridley and the Archbishop's brother, seem to
have fallen into some indiscretion in their attempts to
reform. The Romish clergy of the Church of England
still warned the people against the preachers of the new
learning. Several conspiracies were formed against the
Archbishop, from which he only escaped through the
friendship of the King. The account given of his trials is
not quite the same in Strype and Burnet as in Arch-
bishop Parker ; and it is not worth while, in such a con-
cise biography as this, to enter into the discussion of
details. We proceed therefore to remark that, in 1544,
when the King was preparing for an expedition against
France^ and had ordered a litany to be said for a blessing

CRANMER. 267

on bis arms, the Archbishop prevailed with him, to let it
be set forth in English ; the service in an unknown
tongue making the people neghgent in coming to Church.
This, with the prohibition of some superstitious and un-
warrantable customs, touching vigils and the W'Orship of
the cross, was all the progress the Reformation made
during the reign of King Henry : for the intended refor-
mation of the Canon Law, was, by the craft of Bishop
Gardiner, suppressed for reasons of state ; and the King,
toward the latter end of his life, seemed to have a strong
bias toward the popish supei^titions, and to frown on all
attempts at a Reformation.

On the 28th of January, 1546, King Henry departed
this life ; and was succeeded by his only son, Edward,
who was godson to the Archbishop, and had been instruct-
ed by men who favoured the Reformation. Archbishop
Cranmer was one of those, whom the late King had
nominated for his executors, and who were to take
the administration of the government into their hands,
till King Edward was eighteen years old: and when
the Earl of Hertford was afterwards chosen protector,
his power was limited, so as not to be able to do any
thing, without the advice and consent of all the other
executors.

We have hitherto seen Dr. Cranmer, the advocate of
the Reformation, but yielding in his w^eakness too fre-
quently to King Henry. We now must look upon him as
exposed to other influences, and through weakness yield-
ing to the ultra-protestants.

On the 20th of February, the coronation of King
Edward was solemnized at Westminster Abbey. The
ceremony was performed by Archbishop Cranmer, who
made a speech to the King; in which, after a just
censure of the papal encroachments on princes, and
a declaration, that the solemn ceremonies of a corona-
tion add nothing to the authority of a prince, whose
power is derived immediately from God ; he goes on to

268 CRANMER.

inform the King of his duty, exhorts him to follow the
precedent of good Josias, to regulate the Avorship of God,
to suppress idolatry, reward virtue, execute justice, relieve
the poor, repress violence, and punish the evil-doer. It
may not be improper to transcribe what he says concern-
ing the divine original of kingly power, in his own words,
to rectify some prevailing notions amongst us.

*' The solemn rites of coronation," says he, '•' have their
ends and utility, yet neither direct force or necessity ;
they be good admonitions to put kings in mind of their
duty to God, but no increasement of their dignity : for
they be God's anointed, not in respect of the oil, which
the bishop useth, but in consideration of their power
which is ordained, of the sword which is authorized, of
their persons which are elected of God; and endued
with the gifts of His Spirit, for the better ruling and
guiding of His people. The oil, if added, is but a
ceremony ; if it be wanting, the King is yet a perfect
monarch notwithstanding, and Gods anointed, as well
as if he was inoiled." Then follows his account of the
King's duty ; after which he goes on, " Being bound
by my function to lay these things before your royal
highoess, yet I openly declare, before the living God,
and before these nobles of the land, that I have no
commission to denounce your majesty deprived, if your
highness miss in part, or in whole, of these per-
formances."

This speech had such an effect on the young King, that
a royal visitation was resolved on, to rectify the disorders
of the Church, and reform religion. The visitors had six
circuits assigned them ; and every division had a preacher,
whose business it was to bring off the people from super-
stition, and dispose them for the intended alterations.
And to make the impressions of their doctrine more last-
ing, the Archbishop thought it highly expedient to have
some homilies composed, which should, in a plain me-
thod, teach the grounds and foundation of true religion*

CMKMEii. SCO

and correct the prevailing errors and superstitions. On
this head he consulted the Bishop of Winchester, and
desired his concurrence, but to no purpose ; for Gardiner,
forgetting his professions of all future obedience to the
Archbishop, wrote to the protector to put a stop to the
Reformation in its birth. When Cranmer perceived that
Gardiner was obstinate, he went on without him, and set
forth the first Book of Homilies, in which himself had the
chief hand. Soon afterwards Erasmus' Paraphrase on the
New Testament was translated, and placed in every
church, for the instruction of the people.

Although the Romish party had been in power during
the latter part of King Henry's reign, yet Cranmer had
prepared the w^ay for a further reformation of our Church
with skill and judgment. This became apparent in the
convocation, which was holden on the 5th of November,
1547. The Dean of Lincoln was chosen prolocutor of the
lower house, in the province of Canterbury, and presented
to the Archbishop and Bishops. In his opening address,
Cranmer recommended that the reformation should be
carried forward, and that the clergy should keep close by
the Holy Scriptures. Petitions were presented by the
prolocutor to the Archbishop, of which one was that provi-
sion should be made for the examination of the ecclesias-
tical law, according to the act of the late King to that
effect. Another was somewhat singular, for it was a
prayer that the lower clergy might be united to the house
of commons. There was also another, praying that the
works of the Bishops and others, who, by order of convo-
cation, had laboured in examining, reforming, and pub-
lishing, the Divine Service, might be produced and laid
before the lower house. It is evident that the arrange-
ment of the liturgy had already been commenced by the
Bishops. In their fifth session, an ordinance was read
in the lower house, which had been communicated by the
Archbishop, relative to the communion in both kinds.
The prolocutor and other members signed the document :

2d 2

270 CRANMER.

and in the next session the proposal was adopted. In the
eighth session the question of the celibacy of the clergy
was introduced, and proceeding to a vote, fifty- three voted
for the repeal of all the prohibitory enactments, while
twenty-two were opposed to anj' change whatever.

The convocation having declared in favour of the com-
munion in both kinds, an act of parliament was soon
passed authorizing the changing of the mass into a com-
munion, and ordering that the cup should be administered
to the laity. An Order of Communion was accordingly
drawn up by a committee of Bishops and divines. Pre-
vious, however, to the publication of the book, a series of
questions was proposed relative to this sacrament. Both
questions and answers maybe seen in Burnet and Collier.
The book was published a. d. 1548. This was the first
step taken in this reign in the reformation of the public
services.

It was a little before this, about the year 1546, that
Dr. Ridley, by reading the work of Bertram — (see his
Life) — concerning the Body and Blood of Christ, had
been led to examine closely the prevailing opinion of the
Corporeal Presence ; where, having found it much opposed
in the ninth century, especially by this learned writer,
he communicated the result of it to Dr. Cranmer, and
henceforward they both pursued the subject with more
than ordinary care. How diligently Cranmer studied the
subject is apparent from the works he published in con-
troversy with Gardiner in the year 1550. The chief work,
indeed, of the Archbishop, designed for publication, is the
one then published under the title of "A Defence of the
true and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body
and Blood of our Saviour Christ, with a confutation of
sundry errors concerning the same."

The Archbishop's work had no sooner appeared than it
was attacked both by Bishop Gardiner and Dr. Smyth,
then residing at Louvain. The treatise first mentioned
attracted a considerable degree of notice, and Cranmer

CKANMER. 271

lost no time in preparing an answer to it ; noticing in his
way such of Smyth's arguments as appeared of any im-
portance. This rejoinder was pubhshed in the autumn
of 1551, under the title of " An Answer, by the Reverend
Father in God, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, unto
a crafty and sophistical Cavillation, devised by Stephen
Gardiner, Doctor of Law, late Bishop of Winchester,
against the true and godly doctrine of the most holy
Sacrament, of the Body and Blood of our Saviour, Jesu
Christ. Wherein is also, as Occasion serveth, answered
such Places of the Book of Doctor Richard Smyth, as may
seem any thing worthy of the answering." Nothing could
be more fair or fearless than the course adopted by
Cranmer in this controversy, for he printed in his own
work the whole of Gardiner's tract, commenting upon it
piece by piece. At the end of the volume, he placed an
answer to Smyth's preface, and some tables, bringing into
a single point of view the inaccuracies, inconsistencies,
errors and absurdities into which Gardiner had fallen.
That prelate defended his production in a piece published
in Latin, at Paris, in 1552, under the name of Marcus
Antonius Constantius, a divine of Louvain. To this
rejoinder Cranmer was anxious to reply, and he had, pre-
viously to his death, composed three books in confutation
of it. Of these, the two first perished in Oxford ; of the
third nothing farther is known, than that it fell into the
hands of Foxe.

Of this work, the Archbishop spoke thus, in the solemn
appeal he made from the pope to the next general
council :

" Touching my doctrine of the Sacrament, and other
ray doctrine, of what kind soever it be, I protest that it
was never my mind to write, speak, or understand any
thing contrary to the most holy Word of God, or else
against the holy Catholic Church of Christ, but purely and
simply to imitate and teach those things only, which I had
learned of the sacred Scripture, and of the holy Catholic

272 CRANMER.

Church of Christ from the beginning, and also according
to the exposition of the most holy and learned fathers and
martyrs of the church.

" And if any thing hath perad venture chanced other-
wise than I thought, I may err : but heretic I cannot be,
forasmuch as I am ready in all things to follow the judg-
ment of the most sacred Word of God, and of the holy
Catholic Church, desiring none other thing, than meekly
and gently to be taught, if anywhere (which God forbid) I
have swerved from the truth.

"And I profess and openly confess, that in all my
doctrine and preaching, both of the Sacrament, and of
other my doctrine whatsoever it be, not only I mean and
judge those things, as the Catholic Church and the most
holy fathers of old with one accord have meant and
judged, but also I would gladly use the same words that
they used, and not use any other words, but to set my
hand to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways,
and forms of speech, which they do use in their treatises
upon the Sacrament, and to keep still their interpretation.
But in this thing I only am accused for a heretic, because
I allow not the doctrine lately brought in, of the Sacra-
ment, and because I consent not to words not accustomed
in Scripture and unknown to the ancient fathers, but
newly invented and brought in by men, and belonging to
the destruction of souls, and overthrow of the old and
pure religion."

We must now return to the year 1547, when Cranmer,
to his disgrace, was mainly instrumental in introducing a
bill which withdrew from four deans and chapters the elec-
tion of bishops, and admitted the prelates to their sees by
the letters patent of the crown, and which declared all
jurisdiction, both spiritual and temporal, to be derived from
the King, in whose name, therefore, all episcopal citations
and processes should now run, with whose arms, instead
of their own, their official documents should be sealed.
This iniquitous act was repealed in the reign of Mary,

CRANMER. 273

when the Bishops of our Church again acted under their
own names and seals; and ever since the reign of Queen
Mary our bishops have continued to do so.

He was more honourably employed soon after in re-
sisting the further spoliation of the Church, which some
of his brother reformers designed and attempted : one
great object of Somerset's administration was to secularize
that portion of the monastic and collegiate property which
had escaped the rapacity of Cromwell, and in the j&rst ses-
sion of the parliament he introduced a bill for giving all
chantries to the King.

The bill was resisted in the house of lords, both by the
reforming and the Romish prelates, and Cranmer opposed
it in a speech of great '.length. After having depicted the
impoverished state of the clergy by the sale of the appro-
priated tithes, which, instead of being divided among the
laity, ought injustice to have been restored to the Church,
he insisted that the. present measure at least ought to be
delayed until the King arrived at full age. By this neces-
sary delay the reason assigned for the dissolution of the
chantries was more likely to be answered ; their estates
would then be applied to the improvement of the royal
revenues ; but, during the King's minority, their pro-
perty would be alienated and wasted ; and if the measure
were deferred, he was convinced that the piety of the
young prince would lead him to bestow their revenues on
the parochial clergy.

These arguments of the primate were seconded by the
Romish prelates ; for these chantries contributed to sup-
port their favourite doctrines of purgatory and masses
for the dead. But the private interests of the protector
and his dependants carried the bill through the house,
notwithstanding the opposition of the Archbishop and
seven other bishops.

In the house of commons, the opposition was equally
strong, and, as it proceeded not from religious motives,
was in part successful. Some of the burgesses repre-

274 CRANMER.

sented, that the boroughs for which they served could not
support their churches and other public institutions, if
the revenues of the chantries were given to the King.
The burgesses of Lynn and Coventry distinguished them-
selves on this occasion, and their arguments had due
weight on the house. The assent of the commons could
not be obtained without a private assurance that the guild
lands, and other property of corporate bodies, should be
restored, though guild lands as well as chantries were
included in the statute. There was also a provision in
the statute, that the revenues of the dissolved chantries
should be converted to the maintenance of grammar
schools and the increase of vicarages.

It is much to be lamented that other burgesses did not
contend for their rights as the men of Coventry did.
Trinity Church, Coventry, still possesses the property
thus secured to it ; and, under the able management of
the present vestry, it is used not only to supply the place
of church-rates, but to render that noble church what it
ought to be. The author may be permitted thus to offer
in a parenthesis this mark of respect to a body with whom
he was for a long period connected, and to a parish which
he must always regard with affection.

We have already alluded to the publication of an Office
for the Holy Communion. The next work published was
a Catechism, by Justus Jonas, translated either by Cran-
mer himself, or by some one acting under his direction.
In this catechism, the two first commandments are con-
solidated, yet with an acknowledgment that they were
anciently divided ; but the use of images is strongly
censured, as leading to the imputation, if not to the
practice, of idolatry. Besides the two sacraments of
baptism and the Lord's supper, a third is asserted, the
power of reconciling sinners to God. The divine insti-
tution of bishops and priests is fully recognised, and the
necessity of reviving the primitive discipline is strongly
enforced.

CRANMEK 275

And now came on the great and blessed work of the
reformation of our formularies ; a committee of bishops and
divines was appointed to revise the entire services of our
Church. As a necessary preparation for their intended
work, they diligently collected the different liturgies used
throughout England, of which there was no small variety.
In the south of England, the use of Sarum was generally
followed ; in the north, the offices were modelled according
to the practice of the metropolitan church of the province,
York ; while the cathedral of Lincoln prescribed the rule
for the middle diocesses. In South Wales, the customs
of Saint David's were followed, and in North Wales those
of Hereford or Bangor. There were few dioceses which
had not peculiarities in their ritual ; since any prelate,
famed for sanctity of life or for miraculous works, was not
only canonized, but imitated in his forms of devotion : the
collects and hymns which he had composed or used were
retained after his death in his own cathedral. Every
religious order had also its peculiar rites, and its peculiar
holydays. The administration of the public offices was
an art not to be learned without long study, and it con-
stituted the chief learning of the priesthood. The super-
stitious customs prescribed by these offices were of an
infinite variety, and they frequently resembled the rites of
paganism.

The first business of the reformers was to simplify all
these things, to reduce all the uses to one, and to have all
the offices translated. The result of their labours was,
the Prayer Book, substantially the same as that which we
now possess, as finally reformed and established in the
reign of Charles 11. The differences between the first
reformed Prayer Book of Edward and ours, are these :
his Prayer Book commenced with the Lord's Prayer.
The psalter was appointed to be read through monthly in
portions, and the lessons, with a little variation, are in the
same order as is still in use. A litany was also compose4
from the most ancient liturgies, consisting of short peti-

276 CRANMER.

tions, interrupted by responses ; but the invocations of
saints and martyrs, used by the church of Rome, were
omitted, and suppHcations were addressed only to the
three persons of the Blessed Trinity, first severally, and
then jointly.

The communion service, which, in the preceding year,
had been set forth separately, was retained with a few
alterations. After the consecration all elevation was for-
bidden, but the people were commanded to kneel when
they communicated. The doctrine of the coi-poral presence
was still under consideration, and therefore the scriptural
expressions, that the Body and Blood of Christ w^ere
received in the Lord's Supper by the faithful, were retain-
ed. The prayer of consecration was the same with ^that
now in use, with this addition : " With Thy Holy Spirit
vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these Thy gifts and
creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the
Body and Blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son."

In the occasional offices many ceremonies were observed,
which have been since abolished as being of a supersti-
tious tendency. Besides the use of the cross in baptism,
there was at the same time an adjuration of the devil to
go out of the baptized person, and to come into him no
more. A chrysome, or white vestment, was put on the
newly baptized person, as a token of innocence, and he
was anointed on the head by the priest, who accompanied
the ceremony with a prayer for the unction of the Holy
Ghost. The catechism was the same as at present, except
an addition on the two sacraments, and it was repeated by
the catechumens when they were confirmed. The sign of
the cross was made on the forehead of each person con-
firmed, in addition to the imposition of hands ; and, in
the office of matrimony, the priest, when he gave the bene-
diction, made the sign of the cross on the forehead of the
newly married persons.

In the visitation of the sick, those who desired to be
anointed might have the unction on their forehead or

CRANMER. 277

breast only, with a prayer that, as tbeir bodies were out-
wardly anointed with oil, so they might receive the Holy
Ghost with health, and victory over sin and death. At
funerals the departed soul was recommended to the mercy
of God, with a prayer that its sins might be pardoned,
and that the body might be raised and glorified at the
last day.

When the liturgy had been completed by the com-
mittee, it was revised and approved by the two convo-
cations of Canterbury and York, or rather by a majority
of these bodies, and was then submitted to the consider-
ation of parliament. It was first brought under the
examination of the house of commons, and received
immediate assent ; but in the house of lords it continued
long under deliberation. The concurrence of the lords
was not at last obtained without a protest from the Earl of
Derby, the Lords Dacres and Windsor, with the Bishops
of London, Durham, Norwich, Carlisle, Hereford, Wor-
cester, Westminster, and Chichester, thre^ of whom had
belonged to the committee.

A statute was then passed for the use of the new liturgy
book throughout the kingdom, and was entitled " An act
for the uniformity of divine semce." The variety in the
forms of public worship, and the consequent irregularities,
were described, but the King had refrained from punishing
such disorders, believing that their authors were actuated
by an honest zeal. For their more effectual remedy, he
had appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other
bishops and divines, to draw up an office for all the parts
of divine service. He had enjoined those whom he had
selected for the work to have a regard " to the direction of
the Holy Scriptures, and the usages of the primitive
Church." This work was now finished by the persons
appointed, with one uniform agreement, " by the aid of
the Holy Ghost."

The enactments against such of the clergy as officiated
*' in any manner different from the rubric" prescribed by

VOL. IT. 3 B

27B CRANMER.

the new liturgy were, a fine for the first offence, and
imprisonment for life, with forfeiture of goods, for a
contumacious refusal. A clause provided that, " for the
encouragement of learning," the universities might use a
Latin, Greek, or HeV)rew translation, of any part of the
service-book, the communion office only excepted.

It will be seen that what the Reformers did was simply
this. — 1. To translate the services. 2. To appoint Scrip-
ture to be read instead of legends. 3. To dispose the
Creed more properly. 4. To have the Lord's Prayer re-
peated aloud instead of secretly. 5. To omit the Ave
Maria and the Commemoration of the Virgin. 6. To
reject unfortunately the metrical Latin hymns without
supplying their place. 7. To omit prayers for the dead,
and invocation of saints.

Thus, as Bishop Hall remarks, the English Prayer
Book was not taken out of the mass, but the mass was
thrust out of the Prayer Book.

By the reforming party the service thus translated and
re-arranged was received with much joy; but the Romish
party in our Church received it of course' with regret.
Disturbances took place in Cornwall, and these were made
a pretext for proceeding against Bonner, Bishop of Lou-
don, (See his Life J who was the leader of the discontented
party. That Bonner could not with safety be permitted
to remain at large, is clear. Nevertheless the process of
his deprivation, and his subsequent imprisonment, were
acts of injustice ; only one must always remember his
own conduct when in power ; he not only deprived and
imprisoned his opponents, but also burned them, and
that too after having subjected them sometimes to pe]--
sonal insults heaped on them by himself, in a manner
which betrayed the brutality of his mind.

The Archbishop is justly censured for uncanonicahy
signing the death warrant of the Lord Admiral Seymour,
tb»)ugh perhaps something more may be said in his favour
in {]](' ca^se of Jane Bocher. He acted aijainst the law

CRANMER. '^79

which prohibits the interference of bishops in a cause of
blood in the case of Seymour, he merely pleaded for the
execution of the law, though a bloody and cruel one, in that
of Jane Bocher. In the first instance he weakly yielded
to courtly influence and his desire to please the protector ;
in the latter he yielded as weakly to public opinion. This
unhappy woman was condemned for holding that Christ
was not incarnate of the Virgin Mary. For this heresy,
which she refused to renounce, she was by the law liable
to the penalty of death. We know how strongly men argued
not many j-ears ago for inflicting this penalty on all who
committed forgery, — the general interests of a commercial
country would be injured, it was contended, if this law
w^ere relaxed. So now we may imagine Cranmer arguing,
that the general interests of religion would be relaxed
unless such blasphemies were restrained by the severest
penalties. And what was the argument of the Romish
party ? Just as in these days men tell us that if we hold
Church principles they w^ill end in popery, and triumph
when a convert to popery is made ; so, by the Romish
party in our Church, at the period under consideration,
the Reformers were constantly twitted with the blasphe-
mies to which, as in the case of Anabaptists, reforming
doctrines tended. Cranmer, though a pious, merciful, and
kind-hearted man, was a very weak one, and might feel
that to vindicate the Reformation, a public example ought
to be made, and therefore he used all his influence with
the young King to sign the death warrant. The unsophis-
ticated mind of the King perceived that the originators of
a movement, ought to view with every merciful allowance,
those who have fallen into error, merely by pushing to an
extreme, a principle which has been generally encouraged.
In the next year Van Paies, a Dutchman, suffered for
denying the divinity of Christ.

At this time the Archbishop unfortunately surrounded
himself with several foreign divines who, though learned
men, were prejudiced against all church principles, and by

980 CRANMER

them the vaccilating mind of his grace was unduly inflamed.
He had become discontented with his former labours
as regarded the service-book, and in 1550, we find the
question of a review of the service-book entertained.
Subsequently to the publication of the Book of 1549, the
same committee drew up a form for the ordering of
bishops, priests, and deacons, and this ordinal was added
to the Prayer Book, published in 1552, in a revised form.
In this book of Edward the Vlth, as it is called, the
general confession and absolution were added at the begin-
nings of both the morning and the evening services. At
the opening of the Communion-office were placed the Ten
Commandments ; a judicious addition to the service which
appears to have escaped the compilers of every liturgy but
our own. In confirmation, the use of oil, and the sign of
the cross were to be laid aside. In visiting the sick, an
option was no longer allowed as to the employment of
extreme unction. Prayers for the dead were wholly omit-
ted, as were also some passages provided for the consecra-
tion of the Eucharist, and the introits, or introductory
psalms, in that service. A rubric was added explanatory
of the kneeling required of those who receive the Lord s
Supper. This posture was said to be enjoined to shew the
communicant's humility, not as a mark of adoration ta
Christ, as if corporally present : " for the sacramental
Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural sub-
stances, and therefore may not be adored, (for that were
idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians,) and the
natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in
heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of
Christ's natuml Body, to be at one time in more places
than in one." All appearance of a leaning towards tran-
substantiation was now avoided also by substituting the
latter clauses as they now stand in the officiating minister's
address to each communicant, for the former clauses,
which alone were enjoined in the first service-book. The
use of circular wafers was likewise interdicted, and the

CRANMER. 0.^1

sacramental bread was merely to be the same that is
ordinarily seen at table, but it was to be made "of the
best and purest wheat that conveniently may be gotten."
In baptism, besides the unction, were omitted the sign of
a cross upon the child's breast, the exorcism, the chrisom,
the two last interrogatories, and the trine immersion. In
the matrimonial office, was omitted the delivery of gold or
silver, as tokens of spousage ; in that for the churching of
women, the individual's offering of her chrisom ; in those
for the sick, all mention of private confessions, and of
reserving portions of the sacramental elements for such
persons, incapable of attending at church, as might desire
to communicate on days in which the Eucharist should be
publicly administered.

In 1552, forty-two articles of religion, the basis of the
thirty-nine, were submitted by the Archbishop to convo-
cation, and were ratified and confirmed. They were
subscribed by both houses. The catechism, usually known
as King Edward's, of which Poynet, Bishop of Winches-
ter, was the author, was also set forth by this convocation.
A code of ecclesiastical law had long engaged the atten-
tion of Cranmer, and he had laboured to accomplish his
design at the commencement of his primacy. In that
statute, which recited the submission of the clergy, a
reforai of the whole body of the canon law was provided,
and even in the reign of Henry a commission had been
appointed, in pursuance of the statute, and some progress
had been made in the undertaking. After the statute of
the six articles, the work was suspended, but not formally
abandoned ; for Cranmer often urged its necessity, and
made an extract of certain passages from the pontifical
code to convince Henry that it ought not to be studied
any longer in England.

At the beginning of Edward's reign, a couimission
was appointed consisting of thirty-two persons, and three
years were allowed for the accomplishment of the work.
But it was still retarded by various impediments, until at

2e2

282 CRANMER.

length, to facilitate its execution, a sub-committee was
chosen of eight, who were to prepare the code for the
revisal of the thirty-two commissioners. The sub-com-
mittee, like the body whence it was elected, was divided
into four classes, bishops, divines, canonists, and com-
mon lawyers. From the finished state of the " Refor-
matio Legum," it was probable that the labours of
the sub-committee had been reviewed and approved of
by the commissioners : it was ready to be submitted
to the King ; but, before it could receive the royal
confirmation, the King died, and the project died with
him.

Still Cranmer's " Reformatio Legum," though not re-
ceived by our Church, is a work of interest. By it we
perceive that King Edward's reformers would have de-
creed the penalty of death against such as should deny
the Christian religion ; whether the same punishment
was intended against heretics is a subject of dispute.
The heretic certainly was to be sent to the civil magis-
trate to be punished. In cathedrals and colleges daily
prayers and weekly communions were enjoined ; in parish
churches a sermon in the morning, and catechising in the
evening.

" On a review of the Reformation," says Mr. Carwithen,
" the conclusion must be drawn, that the reformed code
had incorporated a large portion of the substance, and had
imbibed a larger portion of the spirit, of the pontifical
law. Another conclusion must not be suppressed, that
the reformers did not entertain those latitudinarian
notions of a Christian Church which they have been com-
monly supposed to entertain. Erastus, a German divine-
had about this time promulgated the doctrine that Christ
and His Apostles had prescribed no particular form of
church government, and that the Christian ministry was
not of divine institution. He maintained that the autho-
rity of a Christian minister was derived solely from the
civil magistrate — that the ministerial office was merely

CRANMER. 283

suasory, and that coercion was not within its province ;
in fact, Erastus formally renounced the power of the keys.
Cranmer was at one time of his life suspected of inclining
to these opinions, but he must have renounced therii
before this period. The authors of the ' Reformatio
Legum' were not Erastians."

In 15513, the King's health was such that his life was
despaired of : and the courtiers of the reforming party,
dreading the succession of Mary, attempted to do evil that
good might come, and persuaded the royal youth to set
aside his sister, and to declare the Lady Jane Grey suc-
cessor to his throne ; she was grand-daughter to Mary,
sister of Henry VIII. The guilt of these statesmen was
the greater, as they had all sworn to preserve the order of
succession as directed by the will of Henry. Cranmer
argued strongly and repeatedly against the proposed mea-
sure. But with his usual weakness of character induc-
ing him to act with those who surrounded him, poor
Cranmer, although he knew what was right, at length
yielded to do what was wrong. Forgetful of his bene-
factor, Henry, regardless of his oath, he yielded a reluctant
assent to the traitorous proposal, and, at the earnest re-
quest of the dying boy, he set his hand to his will. The
young King died on the 6th of July.

For eleven days Lady Jane Grey was Queen. On the
accession of Mary, the rightful heir, x\rchbishop Cranmer
was accounted a traitor ; and while we make every allow-
ance for his weakness, we must not be surprised that
Mary only regarded him as a weak man, who feared to
act up to his principles, when he made his humble
apology for the course he had taken.

The Romish party in the Church of England were now
in power, and mercilessly did they use it. Such were,
indeed, the cruelties of the Romanists, that since the
reign of Mary, they have never acquired the ascendancy
in the Cathohc Church of this country, but have been
obliged to form a dissenting sect.

284 CRANMER.

On Queen Mary's arrival in London, Cranmer was
placed under restraint. His resolution was nobly taken,
when it was proposed to him to withdraw clandestinely
from the country: *' Were I likely," he said, "to be called
in question for treason, robbery, or any other crime, I
should be much more likely to abscond than I am at
present. As it is, the post that I hold, and tbe part that
I have taken, require me to make a stand for the truths
of Holy Scripture. I shall, therefore, undergo with con-
stancy the loss of life, rather than remove secretly from
the realm." This virtuous resolve having been formed, he
prepared for the worst by an exact adjustment of his
affairs. Every claim against him was fully satisfied ; and
thus when deprived of his resources, it was found that he
had not a single creditor. This final arrangement of his
pecuniary concerns was a great relief to his mind, " Thank
God," he piously said, " I am now mine own man. I
can now conscientiously, with God's help, answer all the
world, and face any adversities which may be laid upon
me."

Cranmer was abruptly drawn from his temporary seclu-
sion by that spirit of detraction which had industriously
pursued him during the whole course of his public life.
It had been reported, soon after Mary's triumph over the
opposition to her claim, that, anxious to gain favour with
the successful party, he had offered to celebrate King
Edward's obsequies by officiating in a mass of Requiem.
The event quickly shewed this to be an impudent fiction ;
but rumours of a similar kind remained afloat. At length
it became notorious, that mass had been restored in the
cathedral of Canterbury, and this fact was urged as an
irrefragable proof of the primate's time-serving disposi-
tion. The truth, however, is, that this illegal act had
proceeded from the orders of Dr. Thornden, the per-
fidious and ungrateful monk, who had abused so shame-
fully Cranmer's confidence and liberality several years
before.

CRANMEK 285

Nothing annoys a public man so much, as the lies by
which the envious and malignant do the work of Satan.
Personal attacks are bearable, but gratuitous lies could
provoke even so meek a man as Cranmer. His declara-
tion, in consequence of the false rumours which were cir-
culated, is as follows :

" As the devil, Christ's ancient adversary, is a liar and
the father of lies, even so hath he stirred up his servants
and members to persecute Christ and His tme word and
religion with lying; which he ceaseth not to do most
earnestly at this present time. For whereas the Prince of
most famous memory. King Henry VIII., seeing the great
abuses of the I.atin mass, reformed some things therein
in his life-time, and after our late sovereign Lord, King
Edward VI., took the same wholly away for the great and
manifold errors and abuses of the same, and restored in
the place thereof Christ's Holy Supper, according to
Christ's own institution, and as the Apostles used the
same in the primitive Church : the devil goeth about now
with lying to overthrow the Lord's Supper, again, and to
restore his Latin satisfactory mass, a thing of his own
invention and device. And to bring the same more easily
to pass, some have abused the name of me, Thomas,
Archbishop of Canterbury, bruiting abroad that I have
set up the mass again at Canterbury, and that I offered
to say mass at the burial of our late sovereign Lord, King
Edward VI., and that I offered to say mass before the
Queen's highness, and at Paul's church, and I wot not
where. And although I have been well exercised these
twenty years to suffer and bear evil reports and lies, and
have not been much grieved thereat, but have borne all
things quietly, yet when untrue reports and lies turn to
the hindrance of God's truth, they are in no wise to be
suffered. Wherefore these be to signify unto the world,
that it was not I that did set up the mass at Canterbury,
but it was a false, flattering, lying and dissembling monk,
which caused mass to be set up there without mine advice

286 CRANMER

oi- counsel : Reddat illi Domlnus in die illo. And as for
offering myself to say mass before the Queen's highness,
or in any other place, I never did it as her grace well
knoweth. But if her grace will give me leave, I shall be
ready to prove against all that will say to the contrary,
that all that is contained in the Holy Communion, set
out by the most innocent and godly prince, King Edward
VI., in his high court of parliament, is conformable to
that order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and
command to be observed, and which His Apostles and the
primitive Church used many years. Whereas the mass
in many things not only hath no foundation of Christ,
His Apostles, nor the primitive Church, but is manifestly
contrary to the same, and containeth many horrible
abuses in it. And although many, either unlearned or
malicious, do report that M. Peter Martyr is unlearned,
yet if the Queen's highoess will grant thereunto, I, with
the said M. Peter Martyr, and other four or five which I
shall choose, will by God's grace, take upon us to defend,
not only the common prayers of the Church, the ministra-
tion of the Sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies,
but also all the doctrine and religion set out by our said
sovereign Lord King Edward VI., to be more pure and
according to God's Word, than any other that hath been
used in England these thousand years : so that God's
Word may be judge, and that the reasons and proofs on
both parties may be set out in writing, to the intent,
as well that all the world may examine and judge thereon,
as that no man shall start back from his writing. And
where they boast of the faith that hath been in the church
these fifteen hundred years, we will join them in this
point and that the same doctrine and usage is to be
followed which was in the church fifteen hundred years
past, and we shall prove that the order of the Church,
set out at present in this realm by act of parliament,
is the same that was used in the church fifteen hun-
dred years past, and so shall they never be able to prove
theirs.''

CRANMER. 287

Cranmer's enemies, thougli determined on his death,
found it difficult to deal with him as they wished. If he
were tried for high treason, some awkward revelations
might be made respecting persons then in favour. He
had moreover various claims upon the royal clemency.
But this declaration, though not intended for publication,
having been freely circulated, offered them a pretext for
treating him with severity. It was deemed " convenient"'
by the Queen's council, to commit him to the Tower,
'' as well for the treason committed by him against the
Queen's majesty, as for the aggravating the same his
offence, by spreading about seditious bills, moving tumults
and disquieting the present state,"

In the middle of November, Archbishop Cranmer was
attainted by the parliament, and adjudged guilty of high-
treason, at Guildhall. His see was hereupon declared
void; and on the 10th of December, the dean and chap-
ter of Canterbury gave commissions to several persons, to
exercise archi-episcopal jurisdiction, in their name, and
by their authority. The archbishop wrote a very submis-
sive letter to the Queen, in the most humble manner
acknowledging his fault in consenting to sign the King s
will ; acquainting her what pressing instances he made to
the King against it ; and excusing his fault by his being
over-ruled by the authority of the judges and lawyers,
who, he thought, understood the constitution better than
he did himsel". The Queen had pardoned so many
already, who were far more deeply engaged in the Lady
Jane's usurpation, that Cranmer could not for shame be
denied; so he was forgiven the treason; but orders were
given to proceed against him for heresy.

The Tower being full of prisoners. Archbishop Cranmer,
Bishop Ridley, Latimer, and Bradford, were all put into
one chamber, which they w^ere so far from thinking an in-
C!)nvenience, that on the contrary, they blessed (jod for
the opportunity of conversing together, reading and com-
l)aring the Scriptures, confirming themselves in the true

288 CRANMER.

faith, and mutually exhorting each other to constancy in
professing it, and patience in suffering for it.

In April, 1554, the Archbishop, with Bishop Ridley,
and Bishop Latimer, were removed from the Tower to
Windsor, and from thence to Oxford, to dispute with
some select persons of both universities.

In the meantime the convocation had been holden .
and partly because it was carefully packed, partly from the
reaction in men's minds occasioned by the excesses of the
reforming party in the reign of Edward VI., almost all
that had been done in the preceding convocations w^as
reversed. But there was a small body of good men and
true headed by Philpot, w4io defended the reformation,
and a discussion on the Holy Sacrament ensued w^hich
lasted for six days, when the debate ended amidst great
confusion in the lower house, Weston the prolocutor
exclaiming, "It is not the Queen's pleasure that we
should spend any longer time in these debates, and ye
are well enough already, for ye have the word, and we have
the sword."

The report of these proceedings did so much damage to
the Romish cause from their manifest unfairness, that it
was determined to have another discussion at which the
Archbishop, and Bishops Ridley and Latimer, might be
present. Oxford was the place appointed, to which uni-
versity the Archbishop and his fellow prisoners, as has
been before stated, were already removed. The Queen
sent her precept to bring the three prisoners into the
schools at the times appointed for disputation.

The articles, or questions of disputation, were three :
1. Whether the natural body of Christ be really in the
sacrament or not, after the words of consecration are spoken
by the priest ? Q. Whether in the sacrament, after the
words of consecration, any other substance remains, ex-
cept the Body and Blood of Christ? 3. Whether in the
mass there is a propitiatory sacrijSce for the sins of the
living and the dead ?

CRANMER. 289

The proceedings were opened with great state and
solemnity, and, as a preliminary step, the questions being
reduced into the form of articles, were subscribed by all
the members of the committee who had not before sub-
scribed them, either at London or Cambridge. The com-
missioners held their first session in the choir of St. Mary's
Church, and were seated before the altar, '* to the number
of thirty- three persons," Weston, the prolocutor of the
convocation, being the president. Cranmer was the first
of the prisoners introduced into this assembly, in custody
of the mayor, and in the habit of a doctor. He stood
before the commissioners with his staff in his hand, and
declined to accept the seat which was ojBfered to him. The
prolocutor, stationed in the midst of the assembly, began
with a short preface or speech in praise of Christian unity,
and then directed his discourse to Cranmer. He stated,
that the prisoner had been educated in the true Catholic
faith, but that of late years he had separated himself
from it, by teaching erroneous doctrines, and by setting
forth every year a new system. For this reason, the
Queen had sent himself and his colleagues, to bring back
the heretic to the fold of Christ. Weston then exhibited
the three articles which had been already subscribed by
the convocation, to which he demanded the assent and
subscription of Cranmer.

The Archbishop replied to this address with a gravity
and persuasive modesty which drew tears from many in
the assembly. He observed, that no man was so desirous
of unity as himself; but it must be an unity in Christ,
and founded in the truth. Having read the articles three
or four times, he desired an explanation of a term in the
first article, what was meant by "the true and natural
body of Christ," whether an organical or sensible body
was intended? He was answered, though not without
confusion and disagreement among the different speakers,
that it meant the same body which was born of the Virgin.
On receiving this answer, he said that he was prepared to

VOL. IV. 3f

290 CRxlNMER.

maintain the negative of all the questions, that they were
false and against God's holy word, and if agreement in
them were the conditions of unity, he must reject com-
munion. The deportment of the Archbishop was con-
ciliatory, and gained general commendation, and he was
dismissed, after a day had been assigned to him for
disputation.

Ridley and Latimer were next brought in. — (See their
Lives.) — The disputation took place at the time appointed,
and was continued on three successive days. Cranmer
had the precedence, and on the first day was conducted
to the respondent's seat in the divinity school, but still
under the custody of the mayor. The prolocutor opened
the disputation with a customary speech, but committed a
blunder which raised the mirth of the audience. Having
discovered his error, he corrected it, and proceeded to say
that it was not lawful to call in question the doctrine of
the corporeal presence, since it was taught by the express
words of Christ Himself, and to doubt the truth of the
Scriptures was the same as to doubt the truth and power
of God.

To this exordium Cranmer, having first obtained
license, answered, that the purpose of their meeting was
to discuss a question which was doubtful, and therefore
a fit subject of disputation ; but the prolocutor had
affirmed it to be a certain truth, and if so, it was an
unfit matter of discussion. It was, therefore, contrary to
reason to dispute concerning a question which the moder-
ator had predetermined, and if it regarded an incon-
trovertible truth, to expect its confutation from him was
absurd.

The disputation continued from the morning till
past noon, but in a disorderly manner, and with many
interruptions. It was carried on sometimes in English,
and sometimes in Latin. Of Cranfliier's opponents,
Yonge, the Vice-chancellor of Cambridge, was esteemed
the most able ; but three hours had elapsed before

CRANMER. 291

the confusion permitted him to bear a part in the
argument.

To dilate on the metaphysical arguments involved in
the two first questions would be needless; but on the last,
concerning the propitiatory sacrifice in the mass, Cranmer
was fully of opinion that to hold its afiirmative was dero-
gatory to the sacrifice on the cross. If the passion of
Christ were sufiicient for all the purposes of redemption,
where was the necessity of any other? The necessity
of any succeeding supplemental oblations supposed the
sacrifice of Christ to be defective ; and there could be
no sacrifice under the Christian dispensation, except that
of praise and thanksgiving, repentance, and works of
charity.

The manner in which the disputation was termin-
ated by the prolocutor may readily be anticipated :
" Thus you see, brethren, the truth steadfast and in-
vincible ; you see also the craft and deceit of heretics ;
the truth may be pressed, but cannot be oppressed :
therefore cry altogether, Vincit veeitas, the truth over-

COMETH."

Two days after the disputation had ended, the three
prisoners were once more brought before the delegates at
St. Mary's church, and required to subscribe the articles.
Weston having taunted Cranmer in particular with his
failure in disputation, the Archbishop replied, that he was
overborne by numbers and clamour, but that his opinion
was unchanged, and that he persisted in his refusal to
subscribe. Ridley and Latimer gave a similar reply, and
then a sentence of condemnation was read, in which they
were denounced as heretics and favourers of heresy. Being
asked whether they would return to the bosom of the
church, while the sentence was reading, they severally
appealed to heaven, not doubting that, though ejected from
the Romish church, their names were enrolled in the
blessed society above.

A year elapsed during which Cranmer remained a

29.2 CRANMER.

prisoner at Oxford ; the decision of the judges being that
the court, by which he, and his " concaptives," had been
condemned as heretics, had no authority to pronounce
sentence. At length the papal authority being again
established in England, the Bishops of Lincoln, Gloucester,
and Bristol, having received a special commission from
the pope, and a license from the King and Queen, repaired
to Oxford. These prelates had authority to receive Cran-
mer, Ridley, and Latimer into the bosom of the church,
in case they recanted their heretical errors ; but in case of
contumacy, had authority to degrade them from their
spiritual functions, and to deliver them for punishment to
the secular power.

The Bishop of Gloucester presided in the process
against Cranmer, acting as sub-delegate to the cardinal
de Puteo ; but in the process against Ridley and Latimer,
the Bishop of Lincoln presided, acting as the repre-
sentative of Cardinal Pole. Cranmer was first cited
to appear before the commissioners, and the place of
their session was the choir of St. Mary's church. On
the right hand of the president was seated Martin,
and on his left hand Storey, two doctors of civil law, and
attending as commissioners in behalf of the King and
Queen.

The Archbishop having been brought before the com-
missioners, under the custody of the mayor, was cited to
answer certain accusations of blasphemy, incontinence,
and heresy. On his first appearance, being habited as a
doctor in divinity, and having taken a survey of those
who constituted his judges, he acknowledged, by outward
marks of reverence, the commissioners of the King and
Queen ; but on being admonished to show a similar
mark of respect to the delegate of the pope, he answered,
that he had taken a solemn oath never to admit the
authority of the pope within the realm of England.
This oath he intended, by the grace of God to keep, and
would never consent, by any sign or token, to acknow-

CRANMER. 203

ledge the papal jurisdiction. By this refusal he disclaimed
any personal offence to the bishop, whom he would have
honoured as well as the others, if he had the same
commission.

The Archbishop defended himself calmly, but firmly,
against the charges brought against him by the president
and others, disclaiming the authority of the pope, and the
process was terminated by a citation of the Archbishop
to Rome within fourscore days, to make his personal
answers to the articles exhibited against him. The Arch-
bishop said he would willingly go with the permission of
the King and Queen ; but he was immediately remanded
to his prison.

In October, 1555, the Archbishop witnessed the mar-
tyrdom of his holy friends Ridley and Latimer from
the Tower of his prison, and on his knees prayed that
the divine strength might not fail them in their last
agonies.

When the eighty days were expired, which the citation
had allowed for the appearance of Cranmer at Rome,
cardinal Puteo moved in consistory his accusations against
the Archbishop of Canterbury ; in consequence of which,
in a subsequent session of the court, he was sentenced to
be excommunicated and deprived ; and at a third session,
the administration of the see thus vacated was conferred
on cardinal Pole.

As soon as the definitive sentence was received in
England, Cranmer was cited before certain commissioners,
of whom the chief were Bonner, Bishop of London, and
Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, who were invested with full powers
to degrade him, and then to deliver him to the secular
power. The place chosen for the execution of the defini-
tive sentence was the choir of the cathedral of Christ
Church in Oxford. When Cranmer was brought before
c<.)uit, the commission was read, stating that Thomas
Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canterbury, had been cited
to appear at Rome ; that he had wilfully disobeyed the

2f a

294 CRANMER

citation ; that articles had been exhibited ; that evidence
had been heard and examined ; that he had wanted
nothing appertaining to his necessary defence ; and that,
in consequence of his refusal to appear, he had been pro-
nounced contumacious. On hearing this statement read,
Cranmer could not forbear to exclaim, " God must needs
punish such open and shameless lying, that I, being in
prison, and not suffered even at home to have counsel
or advocate, should produce vritnesses and appoint my
counsel at Rome !"

When the commission had been read, the court pro-
ceeded to his degradation. He was clothed in the robes
of an Archbishop, wth the distinguishing appendage of
the pall, but the robes were of canvas : a mitre was placed
on his head, and a crosier in his hand. Bonner and
Thirlby then performed the ceremony of degradation ; the
one wdth the most bitter invectives and savage exultation,
the other with expressions of heartfelt sorrow. When they
attempted to take the crosier from his hand, he held it
fast, and refused to deliver it ; and he pulled from under
his sleeve a paper, w^hich he presented to the commis-
sioners, saying at the same time, ** I appeal to the next
general council ; and herein I have comprehended my
cause and form of it ; which appeal I desire may be ad-
mitted.'' The appeal being handed to the commissioners,
the Bishop of Ely said, that their commission precluded
all appeal, and therefore none could be admitted. "Then,"
replied Cranmer, " you do me the more wrong ; for my
case is not a common case : the matter is between the
pope and me immediately, and none other, and no man
ought to be a judge in his own cause." The Bishop of
Ely then received the appeal, and promised that it should
be admitted if possible. When they came to take off his
pall, he said, " Which of you hath a pall, to take off
mine ?" One of them answered that, in respect of their
being only bishops, they were his inferiors, and therefore
not competent to degrade him : but as they were the dele-

CRANMER. 295

gates of the pope, they had an authority above that of a
metropolitan.

After this pageant of degradation, Cranmer was clothed
in a squalid garb, and consigned to the common prison,
there to remain till the secular power executed the sen-
tence of the ecclesiastical court. Yet, before the tragical
catastrophe, he was appointed to sustain a trial more
severe than any which he had yet encountered ; for it was
a trial under which he fell.

To the Romanists, as well as to poor Cranmer himself,
the concluding scene of the Archbishop's life was discredi-
table in the extreme. By the most disgraceful arts, by an
appeal to his fears, his self-indulgence, and his weakness,
the Romish party cajoled the Archbishop into a recanta-
tion. Historians dispute as to the degree of his guilt,
and the number of his recantations : it is sufficient to
know, that by the meanest of artifices, the Romish
party induced the Archbishop to recant, and then, with
unparalelled baseness, led him forth to execution. Cran-
mer, though morally weak, was not deficient in moral
courage ; and when he found that die he must, he died
manfully.

His recantations were published, as soon as signed, by
Bonner, with malicious eagerness and joy ; and Cole,
Provost of Eton, (see his Life,) was sent to announce
to him his fate, and to preach the sermon.

Cole, having received his instructions, repaired to
Oxford, and the day before the execution visited Cran-
mer in his prison, to interrogate him whether he still
continued steadfast in the catholic faith ? Cramner
replied, that he trusted by God's grace to be daily
more and more confirmed in that faith. On the
morning of the execution, Cole again visited him, to
inquire whether he had any money ? finding that he had
none, Cole gave him fifteen crowns to distribute to
the poor.

No direct intimation was given to Cranmer that he

296 CRANMER.

was about to suffer; but these circumstances excited
his suspicions, and they were confirmed by the visit
of John de Garcina. The Spanish friar brought some
written articles, which he desired Cranmer to sign, and
to repeat before the people. To this request Cranmer
acceded, but secretly deposited in his bosom another
paper, containing a prayer, an exhortation, and a con-
fession of faith, " such as flowed from his conscience, and
not from his fears."

On the 21st of March, 1566, he was led with much
ceremony to St. Mary's church. On reaching the church-
door the choir sang the Nunc Dimittis, and the Arch-
bishop was led to a raised platform. His apparel was
of the meanest description, but a long white beard ren-
dered his aspect venerable, and on his countenance
was plainly marked an expression of deepest sorrow.
Having fallen on his knees, he continued for some time
absorbed in mental prayer. The crowd around him
wept. Cole ascended the pulpit ; — (for an account of
his sermon see his Life.) — During its delivery the vener-
able Archbishop expressed the deepest emotion, some-
times lifting up his eyes to Heaven, and sometimes
fixing them on the ground. There seems to have ex-
isted no doubt on the mind of Cole and his party
that the recantations of Cranmer had been made in
sincerity. Having in his sermon declared that he must
be executed, he called upon the people about to depart, to
hear the confession which the dying penitent was about
to make.

The Archbishop rose. He took off his cap. He began
to address the people. He first read his prayer, being a
supplication for mercy and support in his approaching
trial. He then admonished the hearers not to set their
affections on the things of this world ; to obey the King
and Queen from conscience towards God; to live in
mutual love and charity. He then came, as he said, to
the conclusion of his life, on which depended all his past

CRANMER. 297

life, as well as that which was to come, being now either
to enter into the joys of heaven or to suffer the pains of
hell. The present was no time for dissimulation, and he
was therefore now about to make a true declaration of his
faith. Having repeated the Apostles' creed, and professed
his belief in the holy Scriptures, he came to a point which,
he said, pressed on his conscience more than any other
action of his whole life, and this was his subscription to a
declaration contrary to truth. It was made through fear
of death, and with the hope of saving his life ; but it was
contrary to the thought of his heart. Now, therefore, when
he was about to die, he utterly renounced " all such bills
and papers" as he had written or signed since his degra-
dation, and because his hand had offended by writing
contrary to his heart, that hand should be signally
punished, for when he came to the fire it should be first
burned. The pope he rejected as antichrist, with all the
false doctrines of popery ; and as to the sacrament, he re-
tained the same belief as he had when he wrote his book
against the Bishop of Winchester. The true doctrine
would stand at the last day before the judgment of God,
where the papistical doctrine contrary to it would be
ashamed to show its face.

When the audience heard this unexpected declaration,
a general confusion took place : some began to charge him
with his recantation, and to accuse him of falsehood, and
admonishing him to dissemble no longer. He replied,
that he had ever loved simplicity, and throughout his life
had hated dissimulation. He would have gone on in his
discourse, but was prevented by an universal clamour,
and Cole exclaimed, " Stop the mouth of the heretic, and
take him away !" He was then dragged from the stage
on which he was elevated, and was led to the same spot
where Ridley and Latimer had not long before resigned
their lives. All the way from the church to the place
of execution, the friars continued to utter the severest
reproaches, and the most dreadful threats of eternal
vengeance.

298 CRANMER.

The venerable prelate maintained his fortitude to the
last. He looked cheerfuHy and benignly on all around,
shook several persons kindly by the hand, and put off his
garments with alacrity. His venerable appearance even
attracted the notice of his enemies. Fire being applied
to the pile, he stretched his right hand over it, and never
moved it, save once, when he passed it over his face, until
it was entirely consumed, and before the fire had reached
his body it was reduced to ashes. " This hand hath
offended, this unworthy right hand," was his frequent
ejaculation during his agony. His miseries were soon
over ; and his last words were. Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.

Such was the end of Thomas Cranmer, Lord Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, on the 21st of March, 1556, in
his 67th year. Whether his death was or was not
a martyrdom, like that of Eidley and Latimer, is a dis-
puted point. To save his life he recanted ; and it was
not till he found his recantation to have been made
in vain, that he bore witness to his real opinions. This
would not have been considered martyrdom in the
primitive Church. Nevertheless his end was heroic :
we execrate the cruelty of his persecutors ; and who does
not sympathize with, while he censures his weakness ?
He was, indeed, a man much to be honoured ; though
weak, self-indulgent, and worldly, he was gentle, affec-
tionate, kind, and devout. In many respects the Church
of England is indebted to him; and although, when
we approach his history, we wish that Edward the
Sixth had possessed an ecclesiastical adviser of firmer
principles and more decided character, we cannot but
bear in mind, that such a character could not have
lived through the reign of Henry the Eighth. Among
our archbishops, if Cranmer does not rank among the
best, or the greatest, he still holds a very high place. —
Collier. Strype. Burnet. Todd. Dowries. Soames. Car-
withen. Le Bos.

CRELLIUS. 299

CRELLIUS, JOHN.

John Ceellius was born in Franconia, in 1590, and
studied at Nurenberg, and in otber German universities.
He was educated a Lutheran, but in the exercise of his
private judgment, thought Socinus to be more scriptural
than Luther, and contemning all reference to antiquity,
with the Bible, and the Bible only in his hand, he
became a Socinian. In 1612 he went to Racow, where
he was at first a preacher, and then Bector of the Univer-
sity. His works form a considerable part of the works of
the Fratres Poloni. His conduct to Grotius was very
unjustifiable. Grotius having written against Socinus,
Crellius endeavoured to vindicate his master, and did so
in such terms of civility, that Grotius wrote to him two
letters, perhaps too courteous and kind : he had not been
accustomed to meet with kindness from his opponents,
and his heart melted. These Crellius shewed about,
and so caused an impression to be made on the public
mind that the illustrious Grotius favoured Socinianism.
Even extracts of these letters were printed. He pro-
tested against the abuse made of them, and maintained
that if people would candidly read his works, they would
easily be convinced of the injustice of ranking him with
Socinians.

It is certain that, notwithstanding the terms which he
makes use of in writing to Crellius, he did not approve of
his book : he writes thus in confidence to his brother, " I
have read Crellius 's book : he writes with candour, and
doth not want learning ; but I cannot see how he will pro-
mote religion by departing from the Scripture manner of
speaking authorised by autiquity.

" If I have not answered Crellius," he says in another
letter, "it was for prudential reasons, and even by the
advice of the protestants of France, who think that the
questions being unknown in this countiy, ought not
to be made public by a confutation. It is easy to

300 CRESSY.

refute them with glory, though every one is not capable
of it : but it is still better that they should remain un-
known." He speaks in the same letter, of Socinus as
a man very little versed in the sentiments of anti-
quity, and whose errors he had confuted in many of his
works.

Crellius died in 1632. General Diet. Bourignys

Grotius.

CEESSY, OR CRESSEY, HUGH PAULIN, OR SERENUS.

Hugh Paulin Cressy, a popish divine, was born at
Wakefield in Yorkshire, in 1605, and educated at Merton
College, Oxford, where he took his degree in arts, and
became fellow. Having entered into orders he became
chaplain to Lord Falkland, whom he accompanied to
Ireland, and obtained the deanery of Leighlin, to which
was added afterwards a canonry of Windsor. But throu^.^h
disturbances of the times he never attained the possession
of either of these preferments. This led him to despair
of the fortunes of the Church of England, and being at
Rome in 1644, in the capacity of tutor to Mr. Bertie,
afterwards Earl of Falmouth, he apostatized to the Church
of Rome. He next entered among the Benedictines at
Douay, on which occasion he took the name of Serenus.
At the Restoration he returned to England, and became
chaplain to the Queen of Charles II. He died at East
Grinstead, in Sussex, in 1674.

The work on which he bestowed his chief attention was
the Church History of Brittany, from the beginning of
the Norman Conquest, under Roman governors, British
kings, the English- Saxon heptarchy, the English- Saxon
and Danish monarchy, &c., 1668, folio. Of this work
only one volume was published ; the second, in which he
meant to bring down the history to the dissolution of
monasteries, was left incomplete at his death.

CREWE. 301

CEEWE, NATHANIEL.

Nathaniel Crewe, the fifth son of John, Lord
Crewe, was born at Stean, in Northamptonshire, in 1633,
and succeeded to the title of Lord Crewe on the death of

t his brother, in 1691. He was educated at Lincoln Col-

^ lege, Oxford, of which he became fellow and rector. He
was chosen proctor of the university in 1663, afterwards
clerk of the closet to Charles II., Dean of Chichester,
Bishop of Oxford in 1671, and three years after was
translated to Durham. On the accession of James II. he
was admitted of the privy council, and showed himself
very friendly to all the measures of the court, in religion
and in politics. He paid particular respect to the pope s
nuncio when he came to London, and refused to introduce
Dean Patrick to the King, because he was too zealous
against popery.

Bishop Crewe was also on the ecclesiastical com-
mission before which Bishop Compton was summoned,

^ against whom he took an active part. — (See Life of Comp-
ton.)— He seems to have been a weak, rather than a
wicked man; grateful to James for the favours he had
conferred upon him, and acting as a partizan. But he
seems himself to have become alarmed at length at the
violence of King James's government. He withdrew from
the King's councils, and upon the abdication he expressed
a wish to resign his ecclesiastical dignities to Dr. Burnet,
with an allowance of £1000 for life. He afterwards left
his retirement, and appeared in parliament; but his name
was excepted from the act of indemnity of 1690. His
pardon, however, was at last procured by the intercession
of his friends. He died in 1721. He was princely in

'^his benefactions, particularly to Lincoln College. He
bequeathed £200 a year to the university of Oxford for
general purposes ; and the expense of the Encoenia is
partly defrayed by a sum of money originally left by
him. — Life of Lord Crewe, 1790.
VOL. lY. 2g

J02 CRISP.

CEEYGHTON, EOBEET,

Robert Creyghton was born of an ancient family at
Dunkeld, in Scotland, in 1593, and was educated at
Westminster School, whence, in 1613, he was elected to
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was chosen Greek
professor, and university orator. In 103:3 he was made
treasurer of the cathedral of Wells, and was also canon
residentiary, prebendary of Taunton, and had a living in
Somersetshire. In the begiDning of the rebellion he
joined the King's troops at Oxford ; but he was obliged
afterwards to flee into Cornwall, whence he followed
Charles II. abroad, who made him his chaplain, and
bestowed on him the deanery of Wells. He was accounted
a man of much learning, and in the discharge of his duty
as a preacher, reproved the vices of the court with great
boldness. In 1670 he was promoted to the bishopric of
Bath and Wells. He died in 1672. His only publica-
tion was a translation into Latin of Sylvester Syguropolus's
History of the Council of Florence, Hague 1660, folio. —
Salmons Lives of English Bisliops. Wood. Barwick'&
Life.

CRISP, TOBIAS.

Tobias Crisp was born in London, in 1600, and was
educated at Eton, whence he went to Cambridge. In
16-27 he was presented to the living of Newington Butts,
near Southwark ; but as it was proved that he had been
guilty of Simony, he was removed from it in the course of
a few months. He obtained, however, which he ought
not to have done, the rectory of Brinkworth, in Wiltshire,
the same year. He became a puritan and a rebel. But
among the puritans he caused a division by his furious
manner of maintaining the doctrines of Anti-nomianism.
He died February 27, 1642, of the small pox. After his
death his sermons were pubhshed in 3 vols. 4to, and the

CROFT. 803

Westminster Assembly proposed to have them burnt; the
assembly of puritans thus following the example of the
pope of Rome. Flavel and other puritans were very
vehement in taking the beam out of their brother's eye,
and a warm controversy ensued, which was renewed with
increased vehemence, when the sermons were republished
about the time of the Revolution. It disturbed the har-
mony of the weekly lecture established at Pinners Hall,
the followers of Crisp establishing a lecture at Salters
Hall. — Wood. Bogiie,

CEOFT, HERBERT.

Herbert Croft was born at Great Milton, Oxfordshire,
in 1603. He was sent early to Christ Church, Oxford :
but upon the perversion of his father to popery, he was
removed from the university, and placed at Douay, and
afterwards at St. Omer's. A visit to England, on family
laifairs, introduced him to the acquaintance of Morton,
Bishop of Durham, and Archbishop Laud. Croft is
another instance out of the many which exist, of Arch-
bishop Laud's zeal in converting men from Romanism ;
through the instrumentality of these prelates, he was
reconciled to the Church of England, and returned to
Christ Church. He was preferred to a living in Glouces-
tershire, and to another in Oxfordshire, and, in 1639, he
was made prebendary of Salisbury. He was afterwards
prebendary of Worcester, canon of Windsor, and, in 1644,
dean of Hereford. At the Restoration he was raised to
the see of Hereford, in 1661, which he refused to quit for
higher preferment. His small treatise, entitled The
Naked Truth, or the true State of the Primitive Church,
printed at a private press, was published in 16T5, when
the papists hoped to take advantage of the quarrels of the
non-conformists with the Church of England, and from its
latitudinarian views it became a pojDular work, which not
only drew the attention of parliament to the subject, but

304 CEOXALL.

produced some severe attacks against it. One of these,
by Dr Turner, of St. John's College, Cambridge, was
answered by Andrew Marvell, who applauded the Bishop's
works, and, as might be supposed, defended his principles.
Besides this, he published some occasional sermons,
religious tracts, a legacy to his diocese, and, in 1685,
Animadversions on Burnet's Theory of the Earth. In
the latter part of his life he wished to resign his bishopric
from some scruples of conscience. He died in 1691. —
Wood. Salmons Lives of the Bishojjs.

CKOIUS, OE DE CROI, JOHN.

John Crohjs, a protestant minister, was born at Usez,
where he became a minister, and died in 1659. He wrote
a defence of the Genevan Confession of Faith, 1645, 8vo,
and Augustin Suppose, &c., in which he attempted to
prove that the four books on the creed in St. Augustine's
works are not the production of that author. He also
wrote Specimen Conjecturarum in qusedam Origenis,
Irenaei, et Tertulliani Loca, 1632; and Observationes
Sacrae et Historic^ in Nov. Test, chiefly against Heinsius,
lQ4:i.—Gen. Diet.

CROXALL, SAMUEL.

Samuel Croxall was born at Walton-upon- Thames, in
Surrey, and educated at Eton school, from whence he
removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he
wrote the Fair Circassian, a poem, which is a licentious
imitation of Solomon's Song. On entering into orders he
obtained the living of Hampton, in Middlesex, several pre-
ferments in Hereford cathedral, and the united livings of
St. Mary, Somerset, and St. Mary Mounthaw, London.
He died in 1752. Dr. Croxall was a strenuous whig, and
wrote a book called Scripture Politics. He also published

CUDWORTH. 305

a popular edition of ^sop's Fables, and wrote some
poems ; besides which, his name was affixed to a collection
of novels, in 6 vols. l^mo. — Biog. Brit.

CUDWOETH, RALPH,

Ralph Cudworth was born at Aller, in Somersetshire,
in 1617, of which place his father was rector. Going to
Cambridge, he in due course became fellow and tutor of
Emanuel College. In 1(541 he was presented to the living
of North Cadbury, in Somersetshire. He first appeared
as an author by the publication (in 1642) of his discourse
concerning " The True Notion of the Lord's Supper."
His notion is this, that the Eucharist, considered in its
spiritual and mystical view, is a Feast upon a Sacrifice.
viz : the sacrifice once offered upon the cross, having
some analogy to the Jewish sacrificial feasts, which were
figures or shadows of this true spiritual feeding; for as
those were banquets upon typical sacrifices, so this is a
banquet upon the real sacrifice to which they pointed ;
and as those banquets were federal directly with respect
to the legal covenant, so is this banquet federal with re-
spect to the Evangelical Covenant, formerly couched under
the legal one.

In the same year he published his treatise, entitled
" The Union of Christ and the Church Shadowed."

In the year 1644 he took the degree of bachelor of
divinity, upon which occasion he maintained at the com-
mencement the two following theses :

1. Dantur boni et mali rationes seternse & indispensa-
biles ; that is, the reasons of good and evil are eternal and
indispensable.

2. Dantur substantias corporae sua natura immortales :
that is, there are incorporeal substances by their own
nature immortal.

It appears from these questions, that he was even at
2g2

306 CUDWORTH.

that time examining and revolving in his mind those
important subjects, which he so long afterwards cleared
up with such uncommon penetration in his Intellectual
System, and other works still preserved in manuscript.
In the same year (1644) he was appointed master of
Clare Hall, in Cambridge, in the room of Dr. Paske, who
had been ejected by the parliamentary visitors. In 1645,
Dr. Metcalf, having resigned the regius professorship of
the Hebrew tongues, Mr. Cud worth was unanimously
nominated on the 1 5th of October, by the seven electors,
to succeed him. From this time he abandoned all the
functions of a minister, and applied himself only to his
academical employments and studies, especially to that
of the Jewish antiquities. On the '31st of March, 1647,
he preached before the house of commons at Westminster,
upon a day of public humiliation, a sermon upon I John
ii. 3, 4, for which he had the thanks of that house return-
ed him the same day.

In 1654 he was elected master of Christ's College. He
was, in 1657, one of those who were consulted by parlia-
ment about the English translation of the Bible, and by
his learning he gained the friendship of Whitelocke, and
of Thurlow. To the latter he wrote an account of his
design to publish some Latin discourses in defence of
Christianity, against Judaism. Part of this design, a
discourse concerning Daniels Prophecy of the Seventy
Weeks, which was read in the public schools of Cambridge,
is highly commended by Henry More, in the preface to
jjis Grand Mystery of Godliness. " In this work," ob-
serves More, " Dr. Cudworth has undeceived the world,
misled too long by the over-great opinion they had of
Joseph Scaliger, and has demonstrated the manifestation
of the Messiah to have fallen out at the end of the sixty-
ninth week, and his passion in the midst of the last ;
W'hich demonstration of his is, in my apprehension, of as
much price and worth in theology, as either the circula-
tion of the blood in physic, or the motion of the earth in
natural philosophy."

CUDWORTH. 307

In 1662 he was presented by Sheldon, Bishop of Loq-
doD, to the vicarage of Ashwell, in Hertfordshire. In
1678 he was installed prebendary of Gloucester, and he
then published in folio his famous work, " The True
Intellectual System of the Universe ; wherein the reason
and philosophy of Atheism are confuted, and its impossi-
bility demonstrated."

" He lived," says Bishop Chandler, " in an age when
the disputes concerning liberty and necessity, mingling
with the political scheme of the leaders of opposite parties,
helped to cause strong convulsions in the state, and to
spread no less fatal an influence upon the principles and
manners of the generality of people. For debauchery,
scepticism, and infidelity, as he complains, flourished in
his time, and grew up, in his opinion, from the doctrine
of the fatal necessity of all actions and events, as from its
proper root.

•' These sentiments disposed him to bend much of his
study this way, and to read over all the ancient philoso-
phers and moralists with great accuracy. He then set
himself to gather and answer all the ancient and modern
arguments for the necessity of all actions, which had
been maintained by several persons, upon very diflerent
grounds.

" He accordingly distinguished three sorts of fatality.
First, natural or material, which, excluding God out of
the scheme, and supposing senseless matter, necessarily
moved, to be the first principle and cause of all things, is
truly and properly the atheistical fate. This he found
defended by Epicurus ; and to refute him and the other
assertors of the atomic material necessity, he published
his learned and unanswerable book, which he entitled,
The Iniellectual System of the Universe. Secondly, theo-
logic or Divine fate, which, indeed, allows in words the
existence of that perfect intellectual Being, distinct from
matter, whom we call God ; yet, affirming that God irre-
spectively decrees and determines all things, evil as well
as good, doth in effect make all actions alike necessary to

308 CUDWORTH.

us. In consequence whereof, God's will is not regulated
by His essential and immutable goodness and justice ;
God is a mere arbitrary will, omnipotent ; and, in respect
to us, moral good and evil are positive things, and not so
in their own nature: that is, things are good or bad
because they are commanded or forbidden, and that which
is now good might have been bad, and bad good, if the
pure will of God, at first, had not determined them to be
what they are at present. Thirdly, the Stoical fate, which
constrains also the natural and moral actions of the
universe, and makes necessity to be so intrinsical to the
nature of every thing, as that no being or action could
possibly be otherwise than it is. For all things, according
to this notion, depend in a chain of causes all in them-
selves necessary, from the first principle of being, who
pre-ordered every event before it fell out, so as to leave no
room to liberty or contingency anywhere in the world."

To overthrow this triple fortress of irreligion, was the
great design to which Cudworth dedicated his life.

Owing to his having imbibed his philosophy from
Platinus, and other disciples of the Platonic school, he in-
curred the charge, in this great work, of giving too much
countenance to the Arian hypothesis. It is most un-
warrantable and uncharitable, to accuse of intolerance and
bigotry, those who, at the first appearance of the work,
pointed out the learned author's error in these respects.
Surely they were as much justified in the zeal for the
truth as he in his zeal against atheism. But the author
was no Arian. His generous and candid mind, when
having a particular line of argument in view, made conces-
sions, from which conclusions were drawn, which he him-
self, by his whole system of divinity, repudiated. This
work, from its nature and importance, had many assailants,
and a warm dispute was raised in consequence between
the author and Le Clerc. The work was translated into
Latin, in 1733, by the learned Mosheim, and the original
was republished in 1743, in 2 vols. 4to, by Dr. Birch,
with large additions, and with an accurate statement of all

CUDWORTH. 309

the quotatioDS, and a life of the author by the editor.
Cudworth died at Cambridge in 1688, and was buried in
Christ's College chapel. Of his posthumous works, which
were a continuation of his Intellectual System, one was
published by Chandler, Bishop of Durham, in 1731,
called a Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable
Morality, intended chiefly against Hobbes and others.
The following are the titles of the remaining MSS. as they
were found by Birch, when preparing his edition of the
Intellectual System, a hundred years ago :

1 . A Discourse of Moral Good and Evil, already men-
tioned.

2. Another book of Morality, against Hobbes's Philo-
sophy.

3. A Discourse of Liberty and Necessity, in which the
grounds of the Atheistical philosophy are confuted, and
Morality vindicated and explained.

4. Another work, De libero arbitrio.

5. On Daniel's Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.

6. Of the Verity of the Christian Pteligion, against the
Jews.

7. A Discourse of the Creation of the World, and the
Immortality of the Soul.

8. Hebrew Learning.

9. An Examination of Hobbes's Notion of God, and of
the Extension of Spirits.

For some time longer these writings reposed quietly in
the library at Oates ; but about the year J 762 they were
sold by Lord Masham, as lumber, to a bookseller ; from
whose hands, after suffering many perils and mutilations,
they at length found their way to the British Museum.
The only public use made of them was by Dr. Dodd, who
ransacked them for notes to the Bible published with his
name, and inserted some other passages in the Christian
Magazine.

The first edition of the Intellectual System, we have
seen, was published in folio, in the year 1678.

In 1706 there was published in two volumes 4to, an

3i0 CUTHBERT.

abridgment of that work, under the title of a Confutation
of the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism, &c. By Thomas
Wise, B.D. — Birch. Chandler. Cattermoles Literature
of the Church of England.

CUECELL^US, STEPHEN.

Stephen Curcell^us was born at Geneva, in 1586.
After residing for some time in France, he settled at
Amsterdam, where he was followed by the Arminians, and
where he succeeded Episcopius as divinity professor. He
was an able critic and a great linguist, and wrote several
theological tracts. He published a new edition of the
Greek Testament, with various readings, and with a
copious dissertation. Polemburg, the successor of Curcel-
Iseus in the professor's chair, has prefixed an account of
his life to the folio edition of his works. He died at
Amsterdam in 1658. — Morerl.

CUTHBERT, SAINT.

This holy man of prayer was born in the North of
England, in the beginning of the sixth century. His
life was written by Bede, and it is a life well worthy
of an attentive perusal, though too long to be trans-
planted into this work. Ordinary facts and providences
are narrated with simplicity, and are supposed to be
miraculous, though the enlightened reader of the present
day will, while he admires the piety which traces every
thing to the divine interference, perceive nothing in the
facts, but what can be easily accounted for, and he will
of course dissent from the conclusions to which Bede
sometimes arrives. There is a great difference between
the lying legends of certain Romish saints, in which gross
falsehoods are told, and the narrative of Bede. Bede
states facts, which being received at second hand, are some-

CUTHBERT. 311

times a little coloured, but never iutentionally gives a
false account ; he mistakes an ordinary circumstance for a
miracle, and records as especially miraculous those curious
coincidences which occur in every man s life, but are only
" set in a note book," when they occur to some one who
has rendered himself eminent by his virtue or genius.
Bede heads his first chapter thus, " How Cuthbert the
child of God was warned by a child of his future bishopric."
Cuthbert was a fine high-spirited lad, " fond of jumping,
running, wrestling,"' and boasting that in bodily exercises
he could surpass boys older than himself.

Bede oberves that, " Divine Providence found from the
first a worthy preceptor to curb the sallies of his youthful
mind. For, as Trumwine of blessed memory told me on
the authority of Cuthbert himself, there were one day
some customary games going on in a field, and a large
number of boys were got together, amongst whom was
Cuthbert, and in the excitement of boyish whims, several
of them began to bend their bodies into various unnatural
forms. On a sudden, one of them, apparently about three
years old, runs up to Cuthbert, and in a firm tone
exhorted him not to indulge in idle play and follies, but
to cultivate the powers of his mind, as well as those of his
body. When Cuthbert made light of his advice, the boy
fell to the ground and shed tears bitterly. The rest run
up to console him, but he persists in weeping. They ask
him why he burst out crying so unexpectedly. At length
he made answer, and turning to Cuthbert, who was trying
to comfort him, ' Why,' said he, ' do you, holy Cuthbert,
priest and prelate ! give yourself up to these things which
are so opposite to your nature and rank ? It does not
become you to be playing among children, when the Lord
appointed you to be a teacher of virtue even to those who
are older than yourself.' Cuthbert, being a boy of a good
disposition, heard these words with evident attention, and
pac-ifying the crying child with affectionate caresses, imme-
diately abandoned his vain sports, and returning home,
beaan from that moment to exhibit an unusual decision

312 CUTHBERT.

both of mind and character, as if the same spirit which
had spoken outwardly to him by the mouth of the boy,
were now beginning to exert its influence inwardly in his
heart. Nor ought we to be surprised that the same God
can restrain the levity of a child by the mouth of a child,
who made even the dumb beast to speak, when he would
check the folly of the prophet : and truly it is said in his
honour, ' Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast
Thou perfected praise !" "

The reader will be struck with the beauty and the piety
of this passage, — he will concur in the general remarks.
Here was a curious coincidence ; but Bede and his friends
evidently magniiied it into a prophecy. It was what a
boy might be expected to say, when Bishops were more
thought of than now ; and with us the charm of the pas-
sage is, not in the child's prediction, but in the beautiful
way in which Cuthbert received the hint. We will take
the next chapter. " How he became lame with a swelling
in his knee, and was cured by an angel." " Because,"'
says Bede, " to every one who hath shall be given, and he
shall have abundance ; that is, to every one who hath the
determination and the love of virtue, shall be given, by
Divine Providence, an abundance of these things ; since
Cuthbert, the child of God, carefully retained in his mind
what he had received from the admonition of man, he vras
thought worthy also of being comforted by the company
and conversation of angels. For his knee was seized with
a sudden pain, and began to swell into a large tumour ;
the nerves of his thigh became contracted, and he was
obliged to walk lamely, dragging after him his diseased
leg, until at length the pain increased and he was unable
to walk at all. One day he had been carried out of doors
by the attendants, and was reclining in the open air,
when he suddenly saw at a distance a man on horseback
approaching, clothed in white garments, and honourable
to be looked upon, and the horse too on which he sat, was
of incomparable beauty. He drew near to Cuthbert, and
saluted him mildly, and asked him as in jest, whether he

CUTHBERT. 3]:^

had no civilities to shew to such a guest. ' Yes,' said the
other, ' I should be most ready to jump up and offer you
all the attention in my power, were I not, for my sins,
held bound by this infirmity : for I have long had this
painful swelling in ray knee, and no physician, v.ith all
his care, has yet been able to heal me.' The man, leaping
from his horse, began to look earnestly at the diseased
knee. Presently he said, ' Boil some wheaten flour in
milk, and apply the poultice warm to the swelling, and
you will be well.' Having said this, he again mounted
his horse and departed. Cuthbertdidas he was told, and
after a few days was well. He at once perceived that it
was an angel, who had given him the advice, and sent by
Him who formerly deigned to send His archangel Raphael
to restore the eyesight of Tobit. If any one think it in-
credible that an angel should appear on horseback, let
him read the history of the Maccabees, in which angels
are said to have come on horseback to the assistance of
Judas Maccabaeus, and to defend God"s own temple."

A good Samaritan rather than an angel appeared to
Cuthbert ; and the kind physician who prescribed a poul-
tice was exaggerated by the mind of the youth into an
angel. How very easily persons may thus exaggerate
details to themselves, those who are acquainted with the
uneducated or youthful mind are well aware. The fact
was as related ; the colouring was from the fancy. The
reader will see from this how legends originated. They
began in the simple piety of an age not yet corrupted by
the fictions of Rome ; and were carried on by designing
craft to impose upon credulous ignorance. The imagina-
tion of Cuthbert was very vivid, and in consequence of a
vision which he had the night on which Aidan, Bishop of
Lindisfarne, died, he determined to enter a monastery.
We have in the sixth chapter of Bede, an account of his
first entering into a monastery, in the circumstances
attending which the historian again imagines something
mysterious.

VOL. lY, '^ H

314 CUTHBERT.

"This reverend servant of God, abandoning worldly
things, hastens to submit to monastic discipline, having
been excited by his heavenly vision to covet the joys of
everlasting happiness, and invited by the food with which
God had supplied him to encounter hunger and thirst in
his service. He knew that the church of Lindisfarne con-
tained many holy men, by whose teaching and example
he might be instructed, but he was moved by the great
reputation of Boisil, a monk and priest of surpassing
merit, to choose for himself an abode in the abbey of
Melrose. And it happened by chance, that when he was
arrived there and had leaped from his horse, that he
might enter the church to pray, he gave his horse and
travelling-spear to a servant, for he had not yet resigned
the dress and habits of a lavman. Boisil was standing
before the doors of the monastery, and saw him first.
Foreseeing in spirit what an illustrious man the sti'anger
would become, he made this single remark to the by-
standers : ' Behold a servant of the Lord !' herein imitating
Him Who said of Nathaniel, when he approached Him,
' Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.'
I was told this by that veteran priest and servant of God,
the pious Sigfrid, for he was standing by when Boisil said
these words, and was at that time a youth studying the
first rudiments of the monastic life in that same monas-
tery ; but now he is a man, perfect in the Lord, living in
our monastery at Yarrow, and amid the last sighs of his
fainting body thirsting for a happy entrance into another
life. Boisil, without saying more, kindly received Cuth-
bert as he approached ; and when he had heard the cause
of his coming, namely, that he preferred the monastery to
the world, he kept him near himself, for he was the prior
of that same monastery.

" After a few days, when Eata, who was at that time
priest and abbot of the monastery, but afterwards Bishop
of Lindisfarne, was come, Boisil told him about Cuthbert,
how that he was a young man of a promising disposition,

CUTHBERT. 315

and obtained permission that he should receive the ton-
sure, and be enrolled among the brethren. When he had
thus entered the monasteiy, he conformed himself to the
rules of the place with the same zeal as the others, and,
indeed, sought to surpass them by observing stricter disci-
pliiie ; and in reading, working, watching, and praying,
he fairly outdid them all. Like the mighty Samson of
old, he carefully abstained from every drink which could
intoxicate ; but was not able to abstain equally from food,
lest his body might be thereby rendered less able to work :
for he was of a robust frame and of unimpaired strength,
and fit for any labour which he might be disposed to take
in hand."

Some years after it pleased King Alfred to grant to
Abbot Eata a certain tract of country called Inrhypum, in
which to build a monastery. The abbot in consequence
of this grant erected the intended building, and placed
therein certain of his brother monks, among whom was
Cuthbert, and appointed for them the same rules and
discipline which were observed at Melrose. He seems
himself to have imagined that he had angelic visions, and
doubtless he had communion with God so fervent as to
ravish his mind. Such things occur even now. " Notwith-
standing the fervour of his devotion," says Bede, " he was
affable and pleasant in his character ; and when he was
relating to the fathers the acts of their predecessors, as an
incentive to piety, he would introduce also, in the meekest
way, the spiritual benefits which the love of God had
conferred upon himself And this he took care to do in
a covert manner, as if it had happened to another person.
Plis hearers, how^ever, perceived that he was speaking of
himself, after the pattern of that master w^ho at one time
unfolds his own meiits without disguise, and at another
time says under the guise of another, ' I knew a man in
Christ fourteen years ago, who was carried up into the
third heaven.'"

But, continues Bede, in his usual strain of piety, " as
every thing in this world is frail and fluctuating, like the

316 CUTHBERT.

sea when a storm comes on, the above-named abbot Eata^
with Outhbert and the other brethren, were expelled from
their residence, and the monastery given to others. But
our worthy cliampion of Christ did not by reason of his
change of place relax his zeal in carrying on the spiritual
conflict which he had undertaken ; but he attended, as
he ever had done, to the precepts and example of the
blessed Boisil. About this time, according to his friend
Herefrid the priest, who was formerly abbot of the monas-
tery of Lindisfarne, he was seized with a pestilential dis-
ease, of which many inhabitants of Britain were at that
time sick. The brethren of the monastery passed the
whole night in prayer for his life and health; for they
thought it essential ta them that so pious a man should
be present with them in the flesh. They did this without
his knowing it ; and when they told him of it in the morn-
ing, he exclaimed, ' Then why am I lying here ? I did
not think it possible that God should have neglected your
prayers : give me my stick and shoes.' x\ccordingly, he
got out o-f bed, and tried to walk, leaning on. his stick, and
finding his strength gradually return, he was speedily
restored to health : but because the swelling on his thigh,
though it died away to all outward appearances, struck
into his inwards, he felt a little pain in his inside all his
life afterwards ; so that, as we find it expressed in the
Apostles, ' his strength was perfected in weakness.'

" When that servant of the Lord, Boisil, saw that Cuth-
bert was restored, he said, ' You see, my brother, how you
have recovered from your disease, and I assure yau it will
give you no farther trouble, nor are you likely to^ die at
present 1 advise you, inasmuch as death is waiting for
me, to learn from me all yew can whilst I am able to teach
you ; for I have only seven days longer to enjoy my health
of body, or to exercise the powers of my tongue.' Cuth-
bert implicitly believing what he heard, asked him what
he would advise him to begin to read, so as to be able to
finish it in seven days. 'John the Evangelist,' said Boisil.
' I have a copy containing seven quarto sheets : we cau„

CUTHBERT. 317

with God's help, read one every day, and meditate thereon
as far as we are able.' They did so accordingly, and speedily
accomplished the task ; for they sought therein only that
simple faith which operates by love, and did not trouble
themselves with minute and subtle questions. After their
seven days' study was completed, Boisil died of the above-
named complaint ; and after death entered into the joys
of eternal life."

After the death of Boisil, Cuthbert took upon himself
the duties of the office before mentioned ; and for many
years discharged them with the mo^t pious zeal, as became
a saint : for he not only furnished both precept and exam-
ple to his brethren of the monastery, but sought to lead
the minds of the neighbouring people to the love of hea-
venly things. Many of them, indeed, disgraced the faith
which they professed, by unholy deeds ; and some of them,
in the time of mortality, neglecting the sacrament of their
creed, had recourse to idolatrous remedies, as if by charms
or amulets, or any other mysteries of the magical art,
they were able to avert a stroke inflicted upon them by
the Lord. To correct these errors, he often went out
from the monastery, sometimes on horseback, sometimes
on foot, and preached the way of truth to the neighbouring
villages, as Boisil, his predecessor, had done before him.
It was at this time customary for the English people to
flock together when a clerk or priest entered a village, and
listen to what he said, that so they might learn something
from him, and amend their lives. Now Cuthbert was so
skilful in teaching, and so zealous in what he undertook,
that none dared to conceal from him their thoughts, but
all acknowledged what they had done amiss ; for they sup-
posed that it was impossible to escape his notice, and they
hoped to merit forgiveness by an honest confession. He
was mostly accustomed to travel to those villages which
lay in out of the way places among the mountains, which
by their poverty and natural horrors deterred other visitors.
Yet even here did his devoted mind find exercise for bis
•2n -2

818 CUTHBERT.

powers of teaching, insomuch that he often remained a
week, sometimes two or three, nay, even a whole month,
without returning home ; but dwelling among the moun-
tains, taught the poor people, both by the words of his
preaching, and also by his own holy conduct.

Whilst this venerable servant of the Lord was thus,
during many years, distinguishing himself by such signs
of spiritual excellence in the monastery of Melrose, its
reverend abbot, Eata, transferred him to the monastery in
the Island of Lindisfarne, that there also he might teach
the rules of monastic perfection with the authority of it&
governor, and illustrate it by the example of his virtue :
for the same reverend abbot had both monasteries under
his jurisdiction. And no one should wonder that, though
the island of Lindisfarne is small, we have above made
mention of a bishop, and now of an abbot and monks ; for
the case was really so. For the same island, inhabited by
servants of the Lord, contained both, and all were monks.
For Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, was a
monk, and with all his followers lived according to the
monastic rule. Wherefore all the principals of that place
from him to the time of Bede, exercised the episcopal
office, so that, whilst the monastery was governed by the
abbot, whom they, with the consent of the brethren,
elected, all the priests, deacons, singers, readers, and
other ecclesiastical officers of different ranks, observed the
monastic rule in every respect, as well as the bishop
himself.

He was so zealous in watching and praying, that he
is believed to have sometimes passed three or four nights
together therein, during which time he neither went to
his own bed, nor had any accommodation from the brethren
for reposing himself. For he either passed the time
alone, praying in some retired spot, or singing and making
something with his hands, thus beguiling his sleepiness
by labour; or perhaps he walked round the island, dili-
gently exaijuinmg every thing therein, and by this exercise

CUTHBERT. 819

relieved the tediousness of psalmody and watching. Lastly,
he would reprove the faint-heartedness of the brethren,
who took it amiss if any one came and unseasonably im-
portuned tliem to awake at night, or during their afternoon
nups. "No one," said he, "can displease me by waking
me out of my sleep, but, on the contrary, give me plea-
sure ; for, by rousing me from inactivity, he enables me to
do or think of something useful." So devout and zealous
was he in his desire after heavenly things, that, whilst
officiating in the solemnity of the mass, he never could
come to the conclusion thereof without a plentiful shedding
of tears. But whilst he duly discharged the mysteries of
our Lord's passion, he would, in himself illustrate that in
which he was officiating; in contrition of heart he would
sacrifice himself to the Lord ; and whilst he exhorted the
slanders by to lift up their hearts and to give thanks unto
the Lord, his own heart vv-as lifted up rather than his
voice, and it was the spirit which groaned within him
rather than the note of singing. In his zeal for righteous-
ness he was fervid to correct sinners, he was gentle in the
spirit of .mildness to forgive the penitent, so that he would
often shed tears over those who confessed their sins,
])itying their weaknesses, and would himself point out by
his own righteous example what course the sinner should
pursue. He used vestments of the ordinary description,
neither noticeable for their too great neatness nor yet too
slovenly. Wherefore, even to Bede s day, it is not cus-
tomary in that monastery for any one to wear vestments
of a rich or valuable colour, but they were content with that
appearance which the natural wool of the sheep presents.

By these and such like spiritual exercises, this vene-
rable man both excited the good to follow his example,
and recalled the wicked and perverse from their errors to
regularity of life.

In the year 676 he retired to the secrecy of solitude
which he had so long coveted. He rejoiced that from the
long conversation with the world he was now thought wor-
thy to be pronjoted to retirement and divine contemplation:

3O0 CUTHBERT.

he rejoiced that he now could reach to the condition of
those of which it is simg by the Psalmist : "The holy shall
walk from virtue to virtue ; the God of Gods shall be seen
in Zion." At his first entrance upon the solitary life, ho
sought out the most retired spot in the outskirts of the
monastery. But when he had for some time contended
with the invisible adversary with prayer and fasting in
this solitude, he then, aiming at higher things, sought out
a more distant field for conflict, and more remote from
the eyes of men. There is a certain island called Fame,
in the middle of the sea, not made an island, like Lindis-
farne, by the flow of the tide, which the Greeks call rheuma,
and then restored to the mainland at its ebb, but lying off
several miles to the east, and, consequently, surrounded
on all sides by the deep and boundless ocean. No one,
before God's servant Cuthbert, had ever dared to inhabit
this island alone, on account of the evil spirits which re-
side there: but v^hen the servant of Christ came, armed
with the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, all the fiery
darts of the wicked were extinguished, and that wicked
enemy, with all his followers, were put to flight.

Christ's soldier, therefore, having thus, by the expul-
sion of the tyrants, become the lawful monarch of the
land, built a city fit for his empire, and houses therein
suitable to his city. The building is almost of a round
form, from wall to wall about four or five poles in extent :
the wall on the outside is higher than a man, but within,
by excavating the rock, he made it much deeper, to pre-
vent the eyes and the thoughts from wandering, that the
mind might be wholly bent on heavenly things, and the
pious inhabitant might behold nothing from his residence
but the heavens above him. The wall was constructed,
not of hewn stones or of brick and mortar, but of rough
stones and turf, which had been taken out from the ground
within. Some of them were so large that four men could
hardly have lifted them, but Cuthbert himself, with angels
helping him, had raised them up and placed them on the

CUTHBERT. 8:H

wall. There were two chambers in the house, one an
oratory, the other for domestic purposes. He finished the
walls of them by digging round and cutting away the
natural soil within and without, and formed the roof out
of rough poles and straw. Moreover, at the landing-place
of the island he built a large house, in which the brethren
who visited him might be received and rest themselves,
and not far from it there was a fountain of water for their
use.

Many came to the man of God, not only from the
furthest parts of Lindisfarne, but even from the more
remote parts of Britain, led thither by the fame of his
virtues ; to confess the errors which they had committed,
or the temptations of the devil which they suffered, or the
adversities common to mortals, with which they were
afflicted, and all hoping to receive consolation from a man
so eminent for holiness. Nor did their hope deceive
them. For no one went away from him without consola-
tion, no one returned afflicted with the same grief which
had brought him thither. For he knew how to comfort
the sorrowful with pious exhortation ; he could recal the
joys of celestial life to the memory of those who were
straitened in circumstances, and show the uncertainty of
prosperity and adversity in this life : he had learnt to
make known to those who were tempted the numerous
wiles of their ancient enemy, by which that mind would
be easily captivated which was deprived of brotherly or
divine love ; whereas, the mind which, strengthened by
the true faith, should continue its course, would, by the
help of God, break the snares of the adversaiy like the
threads of a spider's web.

While he was in this place, in the year 684, Archbishop
Theodore, in a full synod, in the presence of Ecgfrid,
appointed Cuthbert to the bishopric of the see of Lindis-
farne, which he most reluctantly accepted. He adorned,
however, the office of a bishop, which he had undertaken,
says Bede, " by the exercise of many virtues, according to
the precepts and examples of the Apostles. For he pro-

329 CUTHBERT.

tected the people committed to his care, with frequent
prayers, and invited them to heavenly things by most
wholesome admonitions, and followed that system which
most facilitates teaching, by first doing himself what he
taught to others. He saved the needy man from the
hand of the stronger, and the poor and destitute from
those who would oppress them. He comforted the weak
and sorrowful ; but he took care to recal those who were
sinfully rejoicing to that sorrow which is according to god-
liness. Desiring still to exercise his usual frugality, he
did not cease to observe the severity of a monastic life,
amid the turmoil by which he was surrounded. He gave
food to the hungry, raiment to the shivering. And his
course was marked by all the other particulars which
adorn the life of a pontiff."

His death took place in 687. Bede, who was present,
gives a minute and interesting account of the circum-
stances attending the event, too long, however, for trans-
cription. He had returned to his dwelling on the island
to prepare for death, the approach of which he perceived.
Having given advice and directions to those around him,
when his hour of evening service was come, he received
from Bede " the blessed Sacrament, and thus strength-
ened himself for his departure by partaking of the Body
and Blood of Christ ; and when he had lifted up his eyes
to heaven, and stretched out his hands above him, his
soul, intent upon heavenly praises, sped his way to the
joys of the eternal kingdom." He was buried in the
monastery of Lindisfarne ; and after several removals, his
body was at length consigned to a tomb in Durham
Cathedral. — Venerable Bede.

CUTHBERT.

Of the life of this Archbishop of Canterbury very few
particulars are known, except that he was of a noble Eng-
lish family, and was translated from Hereford to the
metropolitan see, according to Wright in 710, and accord-

CUTHBERT. QiiS

ing to Godwin in 742. In the last-named year a great
council was held at Cloveshoo, Ethelbald, King of the
Mercians, presiding, with Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and the rest of the Bishops sitting with them, to
examine all necessary points of religion, and of the creed
delivered to us by the ancient institutes of the holy fathers.
And they diligently enquired how matters were ordered
here, in relation to religion, and particularly as to the
creed, in the infancy of the Church of England, and in
what esteem monasteries then were according to equity.

"While we were making this enquiry, (it is said,) and
reciting ancient privileges, there came to hand that privi-
lege of the churches, and ordinance of the glorious King
Wihtred, concerning the election and authority of the
heads of monasteries, in the kingdom of Kent ; how it is
ordered to be confirmed by the command and option of
the metropolitan of Canterbury. And the said privilege
was read, at the direction of King Ethelbald ; and all that
heard it said, there never was any such noble and wise
decree, so agreeable to ecclesiastical discipline ; and there-
fore they enacted, that it should be firmly kept by all.

" Therefore I, Ethelbald, King of the Mercians, for the
health of my soul, and the stability of my kingdom, and
out of reverence to the venerable Archbishop Cuthbert,
confirm it by the subscription of my own munificent hand,
that the liberty, honour, authority, and security of the
Church of Christ be contradicted by no man ; but she,
and all the lands belonging to her, be free from all secular
services, except military expedition, and building of a
bridge, or a castle. And we charge that this be irrefragably
and immutably observed by all, as the aforesaid King
Wihtred ordained, for him and his.

" If any of the kings my successors, or of the bishops or
princes, attempt to infringe this wholesome decree, let
him give account of it to Almighty God at the tremendous
day.

" If an earl, priest, deacon, clerk, or monk oppose this
constitution, let him be deprived of his degree, and sepa-

324 CUTHBERT.

rated from the participation of the Body and Blood of the
Lord, and he far from the kingdom of God, unless he first
make amends for his insolence, hy agreeable satisfaction ;
for it is written, Whatever ye bind on earth, &c."

Cuthbert was the personal friend of St. Boniface, with
whom he kept up a friendly intercourse by letters. In
745 Boniface sent to Cuthbert some canons of a synod
lately held at Augsburg, with a letter. fFor an account of
this see the life of Boniface.) He, about the same time,
addressed a letter to Ethelbald, King of the Mercians. It
is a noble letter, in which he addresses the King in a
strain of earnest affection, while he rebukes his vices with
unsparing severity : it is such a letter as it became an
Archbishop to write to a Monarch, who was not without
good traits of character, but whose immorality was un-
deniable. From these communications it would seem, that
our Saxon ancestors were addicted to gross impurities, and
that the ascetic preteDsions of many were too often used
as a cloak of lasciviousness. But the great fault of
Boniface was devotion to the interests of the see of Rome ;
and while he exhorted the King and metropolitan to
bestir themselves, in order that the existing evils might
be remedied, he evidently desired to obtain, on the part of
the Church of England, what he had laboured for in
Germany, a synodical submission to the papal see. Cuth-
bert, who was a wise and prudent prelate, did not imitate
his mistaken friend's example, in binding himself to obey
in all things the orders of St. Peter, as they called the
pope's commands ; but at a synod held at Cloveshoo, in
Kent, he, and the other English bishops, engaged to
maintain their own laws against encroachment, keeping
up a free correspondence with foreign churches, and a
union of affection, but patriotically refusing to compromise
their dignity by professing submission to a foreign ecclesi-
astical authority ; still the Romanizing party gained ground
in our Church, because in this synod a strict uniformity
was enjoined with the Roman offices and usages, though
not at that time, of course, corrupted as they have since
been.

CUTHBERT. 3-25

The synod was held in September, 747, in the presence
of Ethelbert, King of the Mercians, the Archbishop of
Canterbury presiding ; eleven bishops and several priests
attended. Thirty canons were drawn up. Pope Zachary
was not wanting on this occasion, for he sent a letter to
the synod, written in a very improper strain, and evidently
to establish a precedent for interference in a synod of the
Church of England. The assembled prelates naturally
regarded this only as an instance of friendship on the part
of a foreign prelate, as they had done the previous inter-
ference of the Archbishop of Mentz. After the prelimin-
aries were concluded by the assembled prelates, " in the
front of their decrees," as we find it stated in the minutes
of the synod, " they established it with an authentic
sanction, that every Bishop be ready to defend the
pastoral charge entrusted with him ; and the canonical
institutions of the Church of Christ (by God's protection
and assistance) with their utmost endeavour, against the
various and wicked assults that are made upon them ; nor
be more engaged in secular affairs, (which God forbid) than
in the service of God, by looseness in living, and tardiness
in teaching ; but be adorned with good manners, with the
abstemious virtues, with works of righteousness, and with
learned studies, that so, according to the Apostle, they
may be able to reform the people of God by their example,
and instruct them by the preaching of sound doctrine."

In the second place, they firmly agreed with a testifica-
tion, that they would devote themselves to intimate peace,
and sincere charity, perpetually, every where amongst
them to endure ; and that there be a perfect agreement of
all, in all the rites of religion belonging to the Church, in
w^ord, in work, in judgment, without flattering of any
person, as being minister of one Lord, and fellow- servants
in one ministry ; that though they are far distant in sees,
yet they may be joined together in mind by one spirit,
serving God in faith, hope, and charity, praying diligently
for each other, that every one of them may faithiuily tiiiish
their race.

YOL. lY. ^ I

326 CUTHBERT.

Collier justly remarks that these two canons, especially
the last, seem to be drawn up especially to protect the
Church of England against the pretensions of Rome, and
to reject the precedent of submission which Boniface had
set them.

The third canon orders annual episcopal visitations,
and directs the bishop to call the people of every condi-
tion together to convenient places, and to plainly teach
them, and forbid them all pagau and superstitious ob-
servances, &c.

4. Directs bishops to exhort all abbots and abbesses
within their dioceses to exhibit a good example in their
lives, and to rule well their houses.

5. Orders bishops to visit those monasteries which,
owing to the corruption of the times, were governed by
laymen.

6. Directs due inquiry to be made concerning the good
life and sound faith of candidates for priest's orders.

7. Directs bishops, abbots, and abbesses to take care
that their " families" do incessantly apply their minds to
reading.

8. Exhorts priests to the right discharge of their duty ;
to desist from secular business ; to serve at the altar with
the utmost application ; carefully to preserve the house of
prayer and its furniture ; to spend their time in reading,
celebrating masses, and psalmody, &c.

9. Exhorts priests, in the places assigned to them, by
their bishops, to attend to the duties of the apostolical
commission, in baptizing, teaching, and visiting, and
carefully to abstain from all wicked and ridiculous con-
versation.

10. Directs that priests should learn how to perform,
according to the lawful rites, every ofiBce belonging to
their order ; that they shall also learn to construe and
explain in their native tongue the Lord's Prayer and
creed, and the sacred words used at mass and in holy
baptism ; that they shall understand the spiritual signifi-
cation of the sacraments, &c.

CUTHBERT. 327

11. Relates to the faith held by priests, orders that it
shall be sound and sincere, and that their ministrations
shall be uniform; that they shall teach all men that
*' without faith it is impossible to please God ;" that they
shall instil the creed into them, and propose it to infants
and their sponsors.

12. Forbids priests " to prate in church," and " to dis-
locate or confound the composure and distinction of the
sacred words" by theatrical pronunciation ; directs them
to follow the " plain song" according to the custom of the
Church ; or, if they cannot do that, simply to read the
words. Also forbids priests to presume to interfere in
episcopal functions.

13. Orders the due observation of the festivals of our
Lord and Saviour, and of the nativity of the saints, accord-
ing to the Roman martyrology.

14. Orders the due observation of the Lord's day.

15. Orders that the seven canonical hours of prayer be
diligently observed.

16. Orders that the Litanies or Rogations be kept by
the clergy and people, with great reverence, on St. Mark's
day, and on the three days preceding Ascension day.

17. Orders the observance of the " birth days" of pope
Gregory, of S. Augustin of Canterbury, who " first
brought the knowledge of faith, the sacrament of baptism,
and the notice of the heavenly country," to the English
nation.

18. Orders the observance of the Ember fasts in the
fourth, seventh, and tenth months, according to the
Roman ritual.

19. Relates to the behaviour and dress of monks and
nuns.

20. Charges bishops to take care that monasteries, as
their name imports, be honest retreats for the silent and
quiet, not receptacles for versifiers, harpers, and buffoons ;
forbids too much familiarity with laymen, especially to
nuns ; bids the latter not spend their time in filthy talk,
junketting, drunkenness, luxury, nor in making vestments

3^8 CUTHBERT.

of divers and vain-glorious colours, but rather in reading
books and singing psalms.

21. Enjoins all monks and ecclesiastics to avoid the
sin of drunkenness, and forbids them to help themselves
to drink before three ia the afternoon, except in cases of
necessity.

2-2. Admonishes monks and ecclesiastics to keep them-
selves always prepared to receive the Holy Communion.

23. Encourages boys among the laity to receive fre-
quently the communion, while they are not yet corrupted ;
also bachelors and married men who avoid sin, lest they
grow weak for want of the salutary meat and drink.

24. Orders that laymen be well tried before they be
admitted into the ecclesiastical state, or into monasteries.

26. Relates to almsgiving.

The twenty-seventh canon throws so much light upoa
the state of society, and of the Church at that period, that
it is given in full.

27. When they were thus discoursing much of those
who sing psalms, or spiritual songs profitably, or of
those who do it .negligently, psalmody (say they) is a
divine work, a great cure in many cases, for the souls
of them who do it in spirit, and mind. But they that
sing with voice, without the inward meaning, may make
the sound resemble something ; therefore though a man
knows not the Latin words that are sung, yet he may
devoutly apply the intentions of his own heart, to the
things which are at present to be asked of God, and
fix them there to the best of his power. For the
psalms, which proceeded of old through the mouth of the
prophet, from the Holy Ghost, are to be sung with the
inward intention of the heart, and a suitable humiliation
of the body, to the end that (by the oracles of divine
praise, and the sacraments of our salvation, and the
humble confesson of sins, or by devoutedly imploring the
pardon of them, they that touch the ears of divine pity by
praying for any valuable thing, may the more deserve to
be heard, by their desiring and affecting to draw near to

CUTHBERT. 3-29

God, and to appease Him by the means which I before
mentioned, especially their most holy and divine service) ;
while they offer variety of prayers and praises to God in
that sacred modulation, either for themselves, or for
others, quick or dead, while at the end of every psalmody,
they bow their knees in prayer, and say in the Latin, or,
if they have not learnt that, in the Saxonic, Lord have
mercy on him, and forgive him his sins, and convert him to
do Thy ivill : or, if for the dead, Lord, according to the
greatness of Thy mercy, grant rest to his soid, and for
Thine infinite inty vouchsafe to him the joys of eternal light
tvith Thy saints. But let them who pray for themselves
have a great faith in psalmody, performed with reverence,
as very profitable to them, when dcme in manner afore-
said (on condition that they persist in the expiation
of their crimes, and not in the allowance of their vices)
that is, they may the sooner, and the more easily deserve
to arrive at the grace of divine reconciliation, by prayers,
and intercessions, while they worthily sing and pray ; or
that they may improve in what is good ; or that they may
obtain what they piously ask : not with any intent, that
they may for one moment do evil, or omit good, with the
greater liberty, or relax fasting, injoined for sin, or give
the less alms, because they believe others sing psalms, or
fast for them. For let every one certainly know, that his
own self-same flesh, which hath been the causes of unlaw-
ful wicked desires, ought to be restrained from what is
lawful ; and that a man should punish it at present, in
proportion to its guilt, if he desire not to be punished
hereafter by the Eternal Judge. Let himself first impor-
tune the divine clemency, with groanings of heart for the
restoration of himself, and then bring as many servants
of God as he can, to make their common prayers to God
for him. For if they promise, or believe, or act, otherwise
than hath been before said, they do not lessen sins, but
add sins to sins ; because by this means (above all the
rest) they provoke the anger of the Supernal Judge;
2i2

330 CUTHBERT.

because they dare set his justice to sale every day by an
immeasurable flattery, and the excessive blandishment of
luxurious conversation. We must speak at large of this,
because a worldly rich man of late, desiring that speedy
reconciliation might be granted him for gross sin, affirmed
by letters, that that sin of his, as many assured him, was
so fully expiated, that if he could live three hundred years
longer, his fasting was already paid, by the new modes of
satisfaction, viz. by the psalmody, fasting, and alms of
others, abating his own fasting, or however insufficient it
were. If then divine justice can be appeased by others,
why, 0 ye foolish ensurers ! is it said by the voice of truth
itself, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of Heaven, when he can with bribes purchase the in-
numerable fastings of others for his own crimes ? 0 that ye
might perish alone, ye that are deservedly called the gates
of hell — before others are ensnared by your misguiding
flattery, and led into the plague of God's eternal indig-
nation. Let no man deceive himself, God deceives none,
when He says by the Apostle, we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ, &c.

28. Forbids to receive greater numbers into monasteries
than can be maintained, and forbids clerks and monks to
imitate seculars in " the fashionable gartering of their
legs, or in having shags round about their heads," nuns
were prohibited from going in secular apparel, or in gaudy
gay clothes.

29. Forbids clerks, monks, and nuns, to dwell with lay-
persons.

80. Enjoins, amongst other things, that prayer be
made by all monks and ecclesiastics for kings and dulses,
and for the safety of all Christian people.

Archbishop Cuthbert died in 758, and was buried in
Canterbury Cathedral. — Goduin. Malmesbury. Johnsons
Eccles. Canons. Wilkin's Cone. Landon. Chtrtons Early
English Church.

CYPRIAN. 881

CYPRIAN, THASCIUS C.ECILIUS.

Thascius Cji^ciLius Cyprian ^vas a lawyer at Carthage,
where he practised with high reputation, at the begioning
of the third century, and where he seems to have realised
a considerable property, the reward of his skill and dili-
gence in his profession. We know not the year of his
birth, nor of consequence his age at the time of his con-
version ; for though he had a contemporary biographer in
Pontius his deacon, few of the incidents of his former life
are recorded. We should only judge from the general
habits of his life and of his mind, as displayed in his
writings, and in the acts of his episcopate, that he
was in the prime of life, or at any rate not far passed
the middle age, when he was born again in holy bap-
tism. We may add that some indirect evidence seems
to show, that he was not incumbered with the care of a
wife and family.

The providence of God which had marked out Cyprian
for a high office in the Church, led him to an intimate
acquaintance with Coecilius, an aged presbyter in the
church of Carthage : and this friendship was the means of
his conversion, which took place early in the year 246.
He has himself recorded, in his epistle to Donatus, some
of the struggles which it cost him to leave the world, and
to embrace the life of a Christian, cut off, as it then was,
from the secular employments and honours of the state,
and from the pomp and revelries of a too luxurious wealth.
We shall not be surprised to find, that some of the temp-
tations which assailed the young convert were directed
against his pride of reason. Like Nicodemus, he could
not receive the mystery of a spiritual regeneration.
'• While," says he, "I was lying in darkness, and in the
shadow of death, and while I was tossed uncertain upon
the waves of this tempestuous world, ignorant of what
was my real life, and an alien from truth and light, I
thought the method of salvation which was proposed to me

333 CYPBIAN.

strange and impossible. I could not believe that man
should be born again ; and being animated with a new
life, put off in the laver of regeneration, what he had
before been : and though remaining the same in his
whole natural and animal frame, become changed in his
mind and affections." The favour of God, however, which
had directed Cyprian to the good Caecilius, did not desert
him in these difficulties ; and coming at last with faith
and repentance to the Sacrament of Baptism, Cyprian
received that grace of regeneration, at which his natural
reason had stumbled.

And as his own words best describe the difficulties of
his conversion, so do they best set forth his experience of
the spiritual effects of baptism. " So entirely," says he,
in the same epistle, "was I immersed in the deadly atmos-
phere of my former life, so enveloped in the habits and
commission of sin, that I despaired of ever freeing myself,
and began to look upon these things, and to love them, as
a part of myself. But when the sulliage of my past
iniquities was washed away by the waters of baptism, the
pure and serene light from above infused itself into my
whole spirit : when my second birth of the Spirit had
formed in me a new man, all at once w^hat bad been
doubtful before, became certain, what had been shut was
opened ; into the darkness light shined ; that was easy,
which before was difficult, and that only difficult, which
before was impossible : and now I knew, that that was
earthly and mortal, which had formerly included me in
the bondage of sin ; but that the Holy Spirit of God had
animated me with a new and better nature."

Moved by affection for his father in Christ, Cyprian
took the name of Caecilius at his baptism. His first work
after he had been numbered among the faithful, was his
epistle to Donatus on the Grace of God, from which we
have already made extracts. To this soon was added a
treatise on the vanity of idols, in which he laboured to
destroy that superstition which he had formerly embraced

CYPRIAN. 333

and defended. While thus employing his energies and
talent in the service of the Church, Cyprian was called to
the diaconate ; and in the December of the year following
his conversion, (247), having in the interim lost his friend
Csecilius, he was made a presbyter : a station which he
adorned, as he had already done that of deacon, and as he
was soon to do that of Bishop, with equal modesty and
virtue.

At the death of Donatus, (248), the whole body of the
Carthaginian laity, with the greater part of the clergy,
demanded Cyprian for their Bishop ; overlooking the
youth of the Christian, in the singular merit of the man.
The modesty of the young presbyter, however, would
have given place to his seniors : and he actually withdrew,
concealing himself for a while from the eager search of the
people. But the providence of God had marked Cyprian
as their Bishop ; and when the people had for some time
surrounded his house, besieging the door, and searching
every passage and retirement in their officious zeal, he
appeared at last, baffied in his concealment, before the
assembled crowd. The people received him with trans-
ports of joy, proportioned to the earnestness of their hopes
and expectations

Immediately after his elevation to the episcopal throne,
the attention of St. Cyprian was directed to the restoration
of discipline, which had been much relaxed during the
long peace which the Church had enjoyed. To this end
he called in the advice of his clergy, without which his
great example of wisdom and firmness, tempered with
humility, undertook nothing of importance. To this time
is to be referred his tract de habitu virginiim, and several
of his epistles. The first of these was occasioned by the
breach of an ecclesiastical law, which forbad clergynien to
be incumbered with executorships. One victim, an eccle-
siastic at Turin, had nominated Fautinus, a presbyter, his
executor. The Bishop, in his letter to the clergy and people
at Turin, expresses his regret at this breach of discipline ;
cites the decision of a former synod, condemning the

334 CYPRIAN.

practice, of which Victor had been guilty ; and states, in
general terms, the principles on which the ecclesiastical
canons on that head were founded. ''No man that war-
reth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he
may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier : and if
this rule should regulate the life of every Christian, much
more of every ecclesiastic, that he may give himself the
more entirely to the service of the altar: on the same
principle proceeded the exemption of the Levites, under
the Mosaical law, from the cares of this life : and all this
was maturely considered by those who made the ecclesi-
astical rule which Victor has disregarded." " Wherefore"
continues Cyprian, " since Victor has dared, contrary to
the law lately enacted in council, to nominate Fautinus
his executor, no oblation ought to be made for his death,
nor any prayer be offered in his name in the church : that
so we may maintain the decree of the Bishops which was
religiously made, and of necessity ; and that a warning
may be given at the same time to the rest of the brethren,
not to call off the priests and ministers of the altar and
Church of God, by the distracting cares of this world."

A player, who had left off the exercise of his profession,
on embracing the faith of Christ, but still continued to
teach it to others ; and a deacon who had insulted the
offices and power of an aged bishop, named Rogatian,
gave occasion to two other of Cyprian's epistles ; but the
most painful dehnquency against which he had now to
exert his episcopal authority, forms the subject of his
fourth epistle. The experience of the Church during two
centuries of persecution had fully justified St. Paul's
assertion, that for the present distress, celibacy was the
better state. A single life was by this time looked on as
a state of greater privilege and sanctity, and many of each
sex had voluntarily embraced that condition, not binding
themselves by any vow, but simply proposing to them-
selves a religious celibate. From this condition, those
who were already married were of course excluded : but
for these there was a greater refinement of asceticism

CYPKIAN. 335

open, by a voluntary continence ; and to this some of
them resorted. This discipline seems to have suggested
to those who had already professed celibacy, the dangerous
expedient of choosing one of the other sex, with whom
they might form a kind of spiritual nuptials, still main-
taining their chastity, though, in all things else, li\ing as
freely together as married persons.

That there were unworthy motives at the bottom of
such a course, it would be difficult not to believe : it is
however fair to suppose, that the delinquents were self-
deceived. They had prevailed on themselves to believe,
that they might test and strengthen their religious charac-
ter, by preserving their celibate, in the midst of such
temptations. The world, however, refused to view the
matter in this light : and much scandal ensued. Pompo-
nius, a brother bishop, wrote for St. Cyprian's advice, as
to the manner in which he should treat those who had
been guilty of this scandalous custom in his diocese.
Cyprian declares at once, that the professed celibates with
their agadetce had placed themselves within the snares of
the devil ; and laments that many had already fallen a
sacrifice to his wiles : he recommends, that those who had
offended in this matter, without reference to the tnith or
falsehood of their assertions of purity, should undergo
penance ; that they should then resume their state of pro-
fessed celibacy, if they still thought it conducive to their
Christian character; but otherwise, that they should
marry, since, as St. Paul says, it is better to marry than to
burn. But if any refused to forego their scandalous
custom, they were to be excommunicated, without hope
of reconciliation.

This whole matter affords us a most useful general
lesson, and an awful example of the deceitfulness of sin.
It was under the pretence of a singular sanctity that the
(7vvH<Ta,Kroi voluntarily placed themselves in a position so
full of scandal to the Church in general, and of danger to
themselves ; and many of them doubtless, when they were
on the verge of loosing the very purity which they estima-

336 CYPRIAN.

ted so highly, were priding themselves on the constancy
with which they resisted temptation, and maintained their
Christian life.

While St. Cyprian was thus engaged in the revival of
discipline, which a lay person had relaxed, persecution,
with its healing though painful influence was approach-
ing. After various and rapid revolutions, Decius a
heathen prince found himself invested with the imperial
purple. He was himself a firm adherent to the super-
stitions of his forefathers, and he was perhaps alarmed at
the num^ber of Christians, who must be supposed to cling
with some affection to the memory of Philip, whom he
had dethroned and murdered. The reign of Decius com-
menced therefore with an edict against the Christians.
The first step which was taken on the publication of this
edict, was the appointing of a day on which all who were
accused or suspected of being Christians should be re-
quired to renounce their faith, and sacrifice to the heathen
gods. Meanwhile they were suffered to remain unmo-
lested. There was sufi&cient leniency here towards the
persons of the brethren, but a cruel policy against the
faith of the Church ; for there was no more likely method
than this to make apostates.

Many in express obedience to the precept of our blessed
Lord Himself, Who taught His disciples, when persecuted
in one city to flee to another, retired from Carthage,
leaving their possessions as the price of their life ;
St. Cyyrian himself was among those who avoided perse-
cution by an early retreat : not, however, before he had
seen ample indications, that against him especially, as the
Bishop of the Church, the fury of the heathens would be
excited ; not before the circus and the amphitheatre had
again and again echoed the voices of the people, calling
out that he should be cast to the lions ; and not before
(which is far the most important) he had become fully
convinced by the best consideration, and, as he himself
tells us, by a warning also from Heaven, that he should
thus be fulfilling his duty to God and His Church more

CYPRIAN. 337

perfectly. On this retreat Caecilius Cyprian was proscribed
by name, and his estate confiscated.

We know not the place or the companions of St. Cyprian's
first retreat ; he tells us, however, incidentally, that he
had not retired from Carthage without leaving a great
portion of his property for the benefit of the poor of his
diocese ; committing it, for that purpose, to the presbyter
Fiogatian. Meanwhile, if absent in body, he was yet in
spirit present with his flock ; sparing neither exertion,
nor prayers, nor eucharistic commemorations, nor frequent
directions, encouragements, and reproofs, to preserve them
in the true faith of Christ, and within the bonds of apos-
tolical order. He was careful, therefore, through the
medium of Tertullus, of whom he speaks with much
affection, to receive constant intelligence from Carthage ;
and he made up for his absence, as much as possible, by
his frequent letters to the clergy, and to the people of his
church. He exhorts them to a maintenance of discipline,
and at the same time to as great prudence and meekness
under the Church's affliction as was consistent with
fidelity. He encourages those who were suffering under
the severest pressure of persecution, and at the same time
warns them not to be too much elated by their privilege ;
and he gives suitable exhortations, alike to those who may
receive and those who may miss, the martyrs crown. Nor
were bis own people the only persons who demanded his
attention. In Rome, Cyprian had been represented as a
renegade, and the clergy of Rome had written letters to
Carthage, in which they boast of their own constancy, and
insinuate an unfavourable comparison at Cyprian's ex-
pense. At the same time Cyprian himself received an
account of the martyrdom of Fabian, Bishop of Rome, so
expressed as to convey to him a tacit reproof for his re-
treat. Cyprian congratulates the clergy of Rome on the
glory of their confession, while he questions the auth< n-
ticity of letters which cast undeserved opprobriiun ^vn a
Christian Hishop.

VOL. IV -2 K

;338 CYPRIAN.

In this persecution, which was the fiercest to which
Christianity had yet been exposed ; and which found the
Church less prepared than it had been at any previous
time, to resist its spiritual enemies ; a proportionate num-
ber of the brethren, in all parts of the Roman empire,
apostatized from the faith.

And now it was that, by the united effort of the sound
part of the Church in all Christendom, the ecclesiastical
regulations concerning the treatment of the lapsed, were
reduced to the most perfect form that they ever assumed.

The discipline which had been previously established
by the usage of the Church was as follows : Those who
iiad denied the faith explicitly, or by offering sacrifice or
incense, were at once excommunicated : no offerings were
received from them, and no mention was made of them
at the eucharistic commemorations; nor were they received
with the faithful into any ecclesiastical fellowship. They
were not, however, utterly cast off, nor left to become
hardened, by escaping observation and rebuke ; nor, if they
came to a sense of their miserable condition, were they
permitted to remain in despair of the favour of God, by
being for ever shut out from the peace of the Church : but
they were admitted, at the discretion of the Bishop, to a
penance proportionate with their offence ; and were after-
wards formally received into communion with the faithful,
by episcopal imposition of hands.

Some again, by a subsequent confession, and even a
martyr's death, recovered their place in the Church : mar-
tyrdom, especially as a second baptism, being accounted as
purgation of sins, at least so far as the Church has cogni-
zance of them, even as original sin is washed away in the
laver of baptism, sufficiently sealed the reconciliation of the
returning Christian. Those, also, who were penitent,
and were seized with any mortal illness, were at once
restored by the administration of the Holy Eucharist.
Another medium of return to the peace of the Church,
was the intercession of the martyrs. It was supposed,

CYPRIAN. a39

tliat those blessed saints who were awaiting in the
faith and hope of martyrs, an immediate crown of glory,
and admission to the beatific vision, might especially pre-
vail in their intercessions at the throne of grace ; and the
privilege of those whose souls should soon cry from
beneath the heavenly altar, against the persecutors, was
thought to extend, in some degree, to a prevailing inter-
cession for the persecuted.

But during this persecution, the salutary laws which
should have restrained the exercise of the martyr's privi-
lege, were in many instances disregarded : and hence arose
miserable divisions in the Church, with all the heart-
burnings and lasting evils of party spirit ; soine proceeding
even to actual violence, and others, taking occasion from
this excitement and division to add fury to a previous
faction, and strength to a subsequent schism. In a word,
the question of the lapsed is more or less connected,
henceforth, with almost every incident of importance in
which we shall find St. Cyprian involved.

So soon as the end of April, that is, before the extremity
of persecution had lasted a month, we find Cyprian lament-
ing the pride and presumption of some confessors; and
again, soon after, he rebukes some of the clergy for a spirit
of insubordination, and contention. And in an epistle
written in June to his clergy, he feelingly laments that the
beauty and excellence of confession was so often tarnished
by these vices ; and having recommended humility and
obedience, he enters at once upon the great question which
then awaited his decision, touching the reconciliation of
those who had received a recommendation from the mar-
tyrs, without sufficient proof of penitence on the part of
the lapsed ; without sufficient caution on the part of the
martyrs ; and without a sufficient care, on the part of the
clergy, to maintain due order and discipline. " I regret,"
says he, " to hear, that some of you, actuated by pride and
impudence, employ yourselves in exciting discord ....
and that they cannot be governed by the deacons or the
priests, but so demean themselves, that the illustrious

340 CYPRIAN.

splendour of many and excellent confessors is tarnished
by the disreputable manners of a few. Such persons
ought to dread, lest they should be expelled from the
society of the good, being condemned by their testimony
and judgment. For he is the truly illustrious confessor,
for whom the Church has not to blush afterwards, but in
whom she still glories. As for that which my brother
presbyters Donatus and Fortunatus, Novatus and Gordius,
have written to me, I have been able to answer nothing
alone ; since I have determined, from the beginning of my
episcopate, to do nothing by my private judgment without
consulting you, and without the consent of the people.
But when God shall permit my return, we will determine
what ought to be done together, as aur mutual dignity
demands."

The good advice of St. Cyprian would have prevailed, if
there had been really a desire of peace, and a disposition
to obey in those to whom he wrote, but the martyrs were
made the tools of an ambitious and factious party among
the presbyters, who actually instigated them to an un-
worthy use of their license of recommendation, in favour
of men to whom they knew that Cyprian could never
conscientiously concede the privilege of communion: thus
associating with themselves, in their opposition against
their Bishop, a body of overweening martyrs and confes-
sors, and a clamorous party of the lapsed; while they
flattered the pride of the one, and excited the hopes and
passions of the other.

Cyprian had now remained more than a year in his
retreat. He lamented his forced absence from his people
with deep and unceasing regret. He found consolation,
however, in the hope that he should celebrate the ap-
proaching Easter among them. But the promised plea-
sure and privilege was denied to Cyprian and his flock,
by the miserable secession and rebellion of certain of his
own people, who so disturbed the peace of the Church,
and excited so much passion and violence, that Cyprian
compares the effects of their machinations to another

CYPRIAN. 341

persecution : and now he declares it was inexpedient for
him to return, lest the authors of schism, though professed
Christians, should be excited to some sudden ebullition of
violence, by the return of their own Bishop.

In the Church of Carthage, was a presbyter named
Novatus. He was doubtless among those who opposed
the election of Cyprian, and disturbed the beginning of
his episcopate ; for a rancorous and persevering hostility
to whatever was right, seems to have been habitual in him.
We find him avowedly connected with Donatus, Fortuna-
tus, and Gordius, in proposing a factious question to
Cyprian, touching the lapsed. He was a lover of novelty,
of insatiable avarice, proud and overbearing, of ill report
among the Bishops of his province, and accused by com-
mon report of peculation in th^ temporal, and error in
the spiritual deposit of the Church ; he was fawning and
treacherous, a firebrand of contention, in the Church a
destroying tempest, and a disturber of all peace.

About the end of the year 249 he had been cited to
answer before Cyprian; and there is little doubt that he
would have been convicted, and canonically deprived.
But when the day for his trial was near at hand, the
Decian persecution broke out with such fury, as to disturb
all the arrangements of the Church, for its internal purity
and peace : but he was not content with impunity ; he
must also have notoriety, influence, and revenge; and
gathering about him a sufficient number of clergy and
laity to mtike his party formidable, he separated from the
Church ; and not only braved her censures, but even
opposed to her body a conventicle of his own, and retorted
her condemnations and warnings with insolent and rebel-
lious threats.

His appropriate charge as a presbyter was over a co7v
gregation separate from that of the Mother Church, but
in the diocese, and under the episcopal jurisdiction of
Cyprian. At this Church Novatus collected around him
five other presbyters, together with a large body of the
2k 2

342 CYPPJAK.

people ; and to assist him in his ministry, to this " seces'^
sion" he procured the ordination of FeUcissimus as his
deacon, without the consent of Cyprian his Bishop, and
even without his knowledge. This Felicissimus became
afterwards his tool and most active partisan ; indeed he
was a worthy associate of Novatus ; for he too had been a
peculator, and was charged with repeated adulteries, and
the most heartless debaucheries.

But Novatus was not unsupported by the clergy of the
Church; of the eight presbyters, of whom alone we have any
mention as attached to the Church of Carthage, and who
perhaps formed the whole of the Bishop's consistory, five,
that is, the majority of the whole number, adhered to the
party of Novatus, and to his deacon, surreptitiously obtained.
These five were Fortunatus, Jovinus, Maximus, Donatus,
and Gordianus, presbyters of long standing, and the same
who had been the old oppugners of Cyprian's episcopate.
Encouraged by so large and important an array of ecclesias-
tics, this party presumed so far, as to declare that they
would refuse the communion to all who maintained the
fellowship, or obeyed the mandates of Cyprian. This was
in fact a sentence of excommunication against themselves,
which was far better than their continuing members of
the Church in name, while they were in fact enemies to
the body of Christ ; and was even preferable, on the whole,
to the sentence of excommunication proceeding in the first
instance from the Church. " Let him,"' says Cyprian to
his before-mentioned deputies, "abide by his own sen-
tence, and hold himself as separated from our communion,
his voluntary act being ratified by us." And, writing to
his people, he says, " It seems nothing short of an inter-
position of divine providence, that these men have brought
upon themselves, by their own act, without my will, or
even knowledge, the punishment which was due to their
criiiics ; and that they who must otherwise have suffered
;the senieuc;.' of excommunication at our hands, and with
your siitfrage, have themselves left the pale of the Church."

CYPKIAX. 848

Novatiis, soon after this, went to Rome for a season,
where Novatian, a man of like character with himself, was
dividing the Church by his contest with Cornelius, just
elected as the successor of Fabian to the episcopal throne
of that city. Novatus threw himself into all the plans of
Novatian, and continued to embroil Carthage still more,
by means of this schism in another Church. Letters and
messengers were sent from Rome to the different churches
favourable to Novatian, and subversive of the authority of
Cornelius. The bearers of Novatian's letters to Carthage,
and of accusations against Cornelius, played their part
most pertinaciously, even after they had been rejected by
Cyprian and a syn )d of bishops. We learn from Eusebius
that at Antioch some bishops leaned so much towards the
Novatian cause, that a council was necessary to suppress
his party; and the schism, which originated with him, was
not entirely healed until the sixth century. At present,
however, we find it struggling for a bare existence in
Rome ; where Novatian, his error, and his schism, were
formally condemned ; his party had been already treated
with equal rigour in Africa; for Maximus, Longinus, and
Machaeus, his emissaries to that province, and the first of
them, the Bishop whom he had endeavoured to obtrude
upon the Church of Carthage, were expelled from that
country. But he was only incited to greater exertions by
these severities ; for he still maintained himself as the
centre of the schism at Rome, and laboured more and more
to disturb the peace of the whole Church, sending bishops
of his party, with other emissaries, into several cities.
Of these, Evaristus, a Bishop, together with Nicostratus,
a deacon and confessor, and Priscus and Dionysius,
accompanied Novatus, his ever-active and ever-dangerous
ally, to Africa, whence his party had been driven with
ignominy.

Caldonius and Fortunatus were despatched from Carth-
age to Ronie, to learn the true state of affairs, and in the
interim Pompeius and liephanus, two African prelates who
chanced to be at Rome during the election of Cornelius,

344 CYPRIAN.

arrived most opportunely, to give their testimony in his fa*
vour. The synod, who had sent Caldonius and Fortunatus,
having separated till their return, Cyprian, though he threw
all his iofluence into the right scale, avoided a public and
formal recognition of Cornelius, till he might make it with
the addition of the sy nodical judgment. This for a time
occasioned some uneasiness to Cornelius, but the explana-
tion of Cyprian dispelled it, and all was now harmony
between them. It was on occasion of this great schism in
the Roman Church, that Cyprian wrote his most impor-
tant and most celebrated work, his tract on the unity of
the Church : a work still of vast importance for its testi-
mony, both against the exaggerated claims of the Bishop
of Rome in after ages, and against the several sectaries,
whoever they may be, who have divided, and continue to
divide the Church, through pride and pertinacity in error.
Shortly after the healing of the schism in Rome, another,
not unlike it in many of its features, though of less im-
portance, occurred in Carthage. We need not relate the
circumstances under which those who had already shown
themselves ready to disturb the Church, and to oppose them-
selves to the authority of Cyprian, procured the consecra-
tion of one Fortunatus by five excommunicated bishops,
and set him up as the rival of the true apostolic Bishop of
Carthage. It is strange, however, that as the claims of
Novatian had been the occasion indirectly of a momentary
coolness between Cornelius and Cyprian, so now the
like effect was occasioned by the pretensions of Fortunatus.
Cornelius gave too ready an ear to the accusations against
Cyprian, and to the allegations in favour of the leader of
the schism. The letters, however, of Cyprian completely
opened the eyes of his brother in the episcopate, and
perfect peace and confidence were again restored. It
is needless to add that the cause of Cyprian, which was
indeed the cause of the Church, was triumphant at Rome
and elsewhere ; indeed he tells us that by the very fact of
the ordination of Fortunatus, his faction was diminished
almost to nothing ; for this shameless act opened the eyes

CYPRIAN. 345

of all who were hitherto deceived by the pretensions of
that party.

The ordination of Maximus by the Novatian party at
Carthage was still more obscure ; and only gives us an
opportunity of mentioning, that there were now three rival
bishops in Carthage. The only account which Cyprian
deigns to give of this latter pretender, is contained in the
following passage of the letter so often lately quoted. " It
is scarcely consistent with the majesty of the Catholic
Church, to notice the impudent attempts of heretics and
schismatics ; I hear, however, that a party of the Nova-
tians have lately sent as their bishop into these parts, one
Maximus, whom I had already excommunicated." The
best use to make of such accounts, is to collect from them
the testimony even of heretics to the necessity of that
discipline which the Catholic Church has ever maintained.
It seems that in those days it was not thought possible to
assume even the external figure of a Church, without the
presence of a Bishop : and that too, a Bishop of that par-
ticular Church, w^iere the schismatics assembled. It
would have seemed monstrous then to have assumed the
character of a Christian Church, without a Bishop ; or of
a Christian Church, in London for instance, under a
Bishop of Olena. Some in these wiser days seem to think
otherwise.

Another terrible persecution was now impending over
the Church. Whenever any dreadful calamity befel the
empire, the people and the magistrates sought to appease
their gods by the slaughter of the Christians ; and the
plague having now broken out with fearful violence, the
Christians were subjected to cruel persecutions. St. Cyprian
was one of the first against whom the malice of an excited
populace was directed, and he was called for to the lions
at the beginning of the troubles that were breaking upon
the Church. He was not, however, yet honoured with the
crown of martyrdom ; nor indeed, although he seems to
have anticipated a different result, did this persecution
under G alius and Volusianus fall so heavily upon his

346 CYPRIAN.

Church, as that of Decius had done. Then he was driven
from his Church, now he remained to comfort, to advise,
to encourage, those who suffered, or who feared to suffer.
Nor did he neglect to plead the cause of the Christians.
His epistle to Demetrian is a very fair specimen of the apolo-
getic writings of the early Christians, and of course puts us
in possession not only of the defence of the Christians, but
also of the arguments which vt^re used against them : on
this account we may make some extracts from this epistle.
" You say," says Cyprian, " that all the evils with which
the world is now harassed, are to be attributed to us, and

to our refusal to worship your gods." " Know,

however, that all these things have been predicted ; and
know also, that they happen not as you ignorantly assume,
because we worship not your gods ; but because God is
not worshipped by you. For since He is the Lord and
Euler of the universe, and all things obey His will, and
nothing ever happens but by His hand, or His permission,
when such events occur as demonstrate His indignation,
they occur not because of us who worship God, but because
of your iniquities, who will not seek the Lord, nor fear Him ;
who will not desert your vain superstitions, and acknow-
ledge the true religion ; so that God, who is the sam.e God
over all, may by all be alone worshipped and supplicated."
We cannot refrain from observing, with how good a
grace the Christians, after they had acquired the superi-
ority in temporal power, retorted upon the heathen their
accusation, that they were the cause of evil in the world ;
since they had not been afraid to make the same accusa-
tion, while they were depressed and persecuted.

St. Cyprian proceeds to quote several passages from the
Jewish Scriptures, in which the very same judgments are
denounced against those who will persist in serving false
gods, as the heathens then suffered, and imputed to the
vengeance of the gods against the Christians. He applies
these threatenings of the prophet to the present time.
He te^lls Demetrian, that the purpose of those judgments
in the divine counse], was to call the heathen to repent-

CYPRIAN. 347

ance ; yet he adds other prophecies, which intimate that
the threatened judgments should fail in this purpose,
and that in consequence of the obduracy of the heathen,
they should still continue. The conclusion of Cyprian's
argument from their fulfilment is as follows. " Lo !
scourges fall upon you from above, yet ye tremble not.
If some such note of the Divine vengeance fell not upon
men, encouraged by impunity, how much greater would be
their boldness and impiety !"

After having at some length exposed the vices of the
heathen, as calling for the vengeance of God, and amply
justifying the infliction of all those calamities which were
attributed to the wrath of Heaven against the Church,
St. Cyprian proceeds to the mention of those cruelties
with which the Christians were eveiy where overwhelmed.
" It is not enough that you yourselves serve not God; but
those who do serve Him you pursue with impious rage.
Nor are you satisfied with depriving us of life by a quick
and simple process ; you inflict the most cruel and linger-
ing death, and are not content even with torturing us
except by some new invention, and with the exercise of a
savage ingenuity. How insatiable your cruelty ! How
implacable your vengeance !

" Christianity either is or is not a crime. If it be
a crime, why do you not at once execute him who
confesses his guilt ? If it be not a crime, why do you
persecute the innocent ? Again : allowing it to be a
crime ; those w^ho are implicated in it, but obstinately
withhold a confession of their guilt, would be the
proper objects of torture : but we confess, we proclaim our
adherence to the Christian cause, and our contempt of
your gods. Why then are w^e tortured, as if we concealed
our guilt ? Why this attempt upon the infirmity of our
bodies ; upon the weakness of what is but earthly in us ?
Kather enter the lists with our minds ; try the strength
of our reason ; see if you can subvert our faith with argu-
ment ; and if you must conquer, conquer by an appeal to
reason."

348 CYPRIAN.

To the Christians St. Cj^prian writes in another strain.
His exhortation to martyrdom is a noble display of the
motives which should lead a Christian to rejoice in
being made more like to Christ by suffering; and the
same may be said of his epistle to the Thybaritans: "A
more fierce and dreadful conflict," says he, " now awaits
us, for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare them-
selves with uncorrupt faith, and a manly virtue ; drinking
to this end, day by day, the Blood of Christ, that for
Christ they may be enabled to shed their own blood. If
we would manifest our willingness to be with Christ, we
ought also so to walk as He walked ; as St. Paul tells us ;
' we are sons, and if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and
joint heirs with Christ, if we so suffer with Him as to be
glorified with Him also.' And this we should now bear
in mind, that none of us may have his desires fixed upon
this world, now ready to perish ; but that all may follow
Christ, who Himself liveth for ever, and giveth life to those
who are established in the faith of His Name."

After having quoted several warnings of our Lord and
His Apostles of impending persecutions, with the accom-
panying promises and blessings, he proceeds, "In the
midst of persecution, our Lord would have us exult and
be glad ; for then the crowns of faith are bestowed, then
the soldiers of God are approved, then heaven is thrown
open to the martyrs. Nor did we so enroll our names in
the army of the saints, as to look for a peaceable service
only, and to deprecate and refuse the battle : for our Lord
Himself, our example in humility and patience and long-
suffering, commenced our course in actual conflict ; Him-
self beginning that warfare which He would have us to
wage, and bearing for us in His own person, that which
He would have us to bear after Him Remember that
He, to whom all judgment is committed, has declared,
that those who confess Him here, He vrill confess them
before His Father ; and that He will deny those who deny
Him And let none be discouraged, dearest bre-
thren, at seeing the company of the faithful put to flight by

CYPRIAN. 319

fear of persecution, and because he sees not the flock as-
sembled in one place, nor hears the voice of the shepherd
(Bishop). They cannot be collected together who are ap-
pointed not to kill, but to be killed. And whithersoever,
in those days a single disciple shall be driven by necessity,
being absent from the brethren in body, but present with
them in spirit, let him not be cast into despondency by
his flight, nor be driven to despair by the solitude of his
retreat. He flies not alone, who hath Christ the com-
panion of his flight. He is not alone, who beareth about
with him every where the temple of God, and hath God
ever within him."

Then having proposed to them the examples of Abel, of
Abraham, of the Three Children, and of Daniel ; having
reminded them of the slaughter of the Innocents ; but
more especially having set before them the unparalleled
sufferings of Jesus Christ; he warns them, that the times
of antichrist are approaching : aud adapting his exhorta-
tion to their necessities, he proceeds : " Men are trained
and exercised for victory in the secular games ; and they
account it no slight accession to their glory, if they receive
the prize before a crowded assembly, in the presence of
the Emperor. Lo ! our great, our illustrious content ;
glorious with the guerdon of a heavenly crown ! lo, how
God witnesses our struggle ; and looking benignantly on
those whom He condescends to call His children, Himself
rejoices in our victory ! How great the happinness in the
sight of God to contend : to be crowned by the judgment
of Christ ! Let us arm, my beloved brethren, let us arm
for the contest with a mind and a faith uncorrupted, and
with devoted valour ! Let those who have hitherto con-
quered resume their arms, lest they lose the glory which
they have nobly won ! Let those who have before fallen
gird on their harness, that they may retrieve their former
disgrace. Let honour incite the faithful; let remorse impel
the fallen to the field."

In marked accordance with this last portion of his
exhortation, was his own conduct in pre})aving his Cbuicli

VOL. lY. 2 L

350 CYPRIAN.

for the coming persecution ; for besides these general
exhortations to martyrdom, and other such-like obvious
measures, he tells Cornelius, in a synodical lettter, that
he had, with the concurrence of forty-one of his compro-
vincial Bishops, re-admitted the penitent lapsed to com-
munion. " For we are warned," said he, " by divers signs,
to arm for the battle, and to summon the w^hole army of
Christ to His banners ; and at such a time we thought it
advisable to place arms in the hands of those who had
before deserted their ranks, though not as incorrigible
traitors or renegades : and as they had already been ad-
mitted to penance, so now to admit them to the peace of
the Church, For now the communion of the brethren is
as necessary to them in their perilous life, as it was here-
tofore at the hour of death ; at which time it was always
proposed to re-admit them into the Church. And how
shall we expect those to pour out their blood for Christ, to
whom we deny the cup of Christ's Blood in the Supper of
the Lord ?"

In this persecution died Cornelius, Bishop of Rome.
He had been banished to Centursellae, whither Cyprian
addressed to him a congratulatory epistle ; and there he
died, — February 14th, 252. — After a few days Lucius was
chosen in his place, and he too soon perished. This is con-
nected with the history of St. Cyprian by an epistle of the
latter, in which he congratulates him on his confession,
and anticipates as a matter of joy, the still higher crown
of martyrdom which probably awaited him.

The plague, which had excited the people to the perse-
cution of the Church, outlasted the cruelties to which it
had given rise ; — a more fatal scourge than man could
inflict, though, in one sense, a less terrible one, siuce it is
better to fall into the hands of the Lord than into the
hands of men : we shall only add that Cyprian wrote his
tract, De Mortalitate, on this occasion, in which he applies
himself to the encouragement of his people, and directs
them in their duties, both towards their suffering fellow-
creaiures, and towards their Almighty Lord, Who was thus

CYPRIAN. 051

calling them to repentance, and a nearer communion with
heaven.

Another opportunity of exercising the charity of his
people occurred also in the year 253, when certain Nu-
midian Christians were made captives by the barbarians.
Nearly £800 was transmitted on this occasion from the
Church of Carthage to the distressed brethren of Numidia,
accompanied with a letter from Cyprian, breathing the
true spirit of Christian charity, and attesting the power of
the doctrine of the communion of saints, over the hearts
and conduct of the faithful.

To the spring of the same year we may refer a very
interesting epistle of Cyprian to Csecilius, the occasion of
which was as follows : — At the time of which we are
writing, a very frequent, perhaps a daily, participation in
the eucharistic feast was the universal custom among
Christians ; but there were men, who were induced, from
a fear that their religion would be betrayed by the smell
of the wine, taken in the morning, to consecrate the cup
only with water; and thus avoid an involuntary confes-
sion, and the consequent persecution.

St. Cyprian maintains, with arguments only too abun-
dantly conclusive, that wine must at all hazards and at
all events be mingled with the cup, and taken by the
people, or that the communicants are deprived of the
Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. We must refer the
reader to the epistle itself for many passages which prove
most convincingly that the doctrine of transubstantiation
was DO part of Cyprian's creed ; and that he would most
assuredly have resented the depriving the laity of the cup
in the Eucharist, as an innovation of the Roman Church,
equally presumptuous, tyrannical, and sacrilegious.

Valerius made it one of the earliest acts of his govern-
ment, to confirm the security of the Christians. In the
first dawn of a less troubled day, the chair of Lucius, at
Rome, had been filled by the election and consecration of
Stephen, on the 13th of May, (258,) after it had been vacant
eight days. Cyprian took the earliest opportunity to con-

S6'2 CYPRIAN.

voke a provincial synod of the African Bishops. At this
synod sixty-six bishops were assembled; and from their con-
sistory an answer was returned to an epistle of one Fidus,
in which two questions had been submitted to Cyprian.

Victor, a presbyter, had lapsed ; and Therapius, Bishop
of Bulla, had received him to communion, before he had
fulfilled the appointed penitential course. Of this Fidus
wrote to acquaint Cyprian ; and he, with his associates at
the synod, proceeded to reprimand Therapius, but deter-
mined that Victor should retain the privilege improperly,
though with a Bishop's authority, extended to him. Here
we have the important rule recognized, that the act of an
ecclesiastical minister may be valid, though it be improper
and irregular. For the judgment of the Bishops pro-
ceeded upon the principle, that the peace of the Church
once given, in whatever manner, by a Bishop, ought not
tO' be recalled.

The second question of Fidus related to the baptism of
new-born infants. He had declared his opinion, that
they ought not to be baptized within the second or third
days from their birth ; with a doubt whether they ought
not to be kept unbaptized even till the eighth day : argu-
ing for the first delay, that children at their birth were in
such a sense unclean, as to present a repulsive appearance,
and to make us naturally unwilling to impart to them the
kiss of peace, which was in those days a part of the cere-
monial of baptism : and grounding his preference for the
still longer interval on the analogy of baptism with the
Jewish rite of circumcision. The issue of this appeal to
Cyprian is conclusive against the doctrine and practice of
Anti-paedobaptists : it was simply, that baptism is to be
denied to none, on account of their youth or age. As for the
strange fancies of Fidus, St. Cyprian reminds him, that to
the pure all things are pure ; and that since God fashioned
us even in the womb, the new-born babe coming more im-
mediately from the hands of God, rather claims our more
affectionate and reverential embrace. When Elisha raised
the widow's son, he put his own mouth and each of his

CYPRIAN.. 353

limbs on the mouth and corresponding members of the
child ; a thing not to be understood literally, or, at least,
not without a spiritual meaning; for the different dimen-
sions of the man and of the child seem to forbid such a
contact : herein then we are taught, that when once
fashioned by the hand of God, all men are in a spiritual
and divine sense equal. As for circumcision, the type
was done away, when the antitype appeared ; and Christ
rising on the eighth day, procured for us a spiritual cir-
cumcision, into which we may be baptized at any time ;
and, in a word, if there be a difficulty in the admission of
any to the laver of regeneration and the sacrament of
remission, it should rather seem to affect those old and
hardened offenders, who have added to their original cor-
ruption, many and long offences ; and not infants, who
are personally guiltless, and bear the sin and death only
of the race from which they spring.

We must pass over the proceedings arising out of the
attempt of certain Bishops (Fortunatianus, Basihdes, Mar-
tialis, and Marcianus) to return without due penance and
reconciliation to the episcopal honour and functions which
they had forfeited by apostacy during persecution, and
pass on to the controversy concerning the baptism of
heretics, which is perhaps the most important of all those
in which Cyprian was engaged.

The question agitated was really one of vital importance.
Whether or no those who had received baptism from the
hands of a heretic, should be admitted into the Church by
a second baptism: or rather, (for this is the more correct
way of stating the question) whether the spriniding by a
heretic should be accounted any baptism at all ; and there-
fore, whether one who had received such a sprinkling
should be baptized. This question had been debated on
several occasions, and had received several solutions in
different provinces, but had never been determined with
authority. In Asia, synods had been held at Synnada
and Iconium, in which it had been determined, that
heretical baptism was invalid. In Africa, Agrippinus,
2l2

354 CYPRIAN.

of Carthage, had presided in a council, at which the
same determination was adopted In Rome, and in the
dioceses in its provinces, the oi)inion seems always to
have been, that they who came over from heresy, and had
received baptism in their separation from the Church,
should be received, nevertheless, without a second ba{>
tism. Meanwhile all agreed, if not in the particular rule
or discipline, yet in the much more important matter,
that the Bishop was the centre of authority in such mat-
ters to his own Church, or the synod of provincial Bishops
to each province ; and that they did right who followed the
determination of their Bishop or the synod respectively,
until the paramount authority of the universal Church
should determine the question.

The region in which this difference first created dis-
sension with Rome, was in Asia Minor. Perhaps some
Asiatic Christians may have expressed their opinion upon
the subject at Rome ; and if th.-y did this imprudently,
still more if they did it intemperately, they were highly
culpable. Perhaps some converted heretics, who had been
received into the Church at Rome without baptism, may
have been rejected on their return to Asia : or some who
had been re ected in Asia may have been received at
Rome ; and in either case, the discipline of a particular
Church, which every other Church ought to respect, was
dishonoured. But, from whatever causes, Stephen became
all at once highly indignant at the error, as he thought it,
of the Asiatic Churches, and wrote to Asia concerning
Helenus and Firmilian, and the rest of the Bishops of
those parts, threatening to withdraw from their commu-
nion, because they repeated the baptism of heretics.

While affairs w^re in this posture between Asia and
Rome, a question was put to Cyprian by some Numidian
bishops upon the very matter which was then embroiling
the Eastern Church with Rome. But Cyprian's answer
will put us in possession of his own judgment upon the
disputed question, with that of the thirty-two bishops
assembled with him in council.

CYPRIAN. 355

He declares it then to be an undoubted truth that " no
one can be baptized out of the Church, since there is but
one baptism appointed, and that in the holy Church ; and
since it is written, They have left me, the fountain of
living water, and have hewn out for themselves broken
cisterns, which can hold no water. And again, another
Scripture speaks in a voice of warning ; Abstain from
strange water, and of a fountain of strange water drink
not. The water, therefore, should first be cleansed and
sanctified by the priest, that it may avail by its use in
baptism to w^ash away the sins of him who is immersed in
it. But how can he cleanse and sanctify the water who is
himself unclean, and upon whom the Holy Ghost is not ;
for the Lord saith, Whatsoever the unclean person touch-
eth shall be unclean ?

" Besides, the very interrogation which is made at
baptism is a witness of the truth. For when we say,
' Dost thou believe in eternal life, and in the remission of
sins by the Holy Church?' we mean that remission of
sins is not given except in the Church ; but that among
the heretics, where the Church is not, sins cannot be
remitted.

" Moreover, he who is baptized must also be anointed,
that when he has received the chrism, that is, the unction,
he may be indeed the anointed of God, and have in him
the grace of Christ. Now% there is an Eucharistic oblation
of oil, from the matter of which the baptized are anointed,
after the oil has been consecrated on the altar ; but he
cannot have consecrated the creature of oil, who had
neither an altar nor a church. Whence, again, there
can be no spiritual unction among heretics, since it is
quite clear that oil cannot be consecrated and made an
Eucharistic oblation by them. And we ought to bear in
mind the Scripture, Let not the oil of a sinner anoint
mine head. And this warning the Holy Spirit gave
beforehand in the Psalms, lest any leaving his proper
course, and wandering from the path of truth, should be
aiiointed by heretics, and the enemies of Christ.

356 CYPRIAN.

"And, yet again, what sort of prayer can the sacrilegious
and sinful priest offer for the baptized, since it is said,
God heareth not a sinner ; but if any worshippeth Him,
and^doeth His will, him He heareth?

" But who can give that which he hath not? or how can
he, who has himself lost the Holy Spirit, minister spiritual
gifts ?

" Finally, to consent to the validity of the baptism of
heretics and schismatics is in effect to approve of it. For
in this case, either all or none is validly performed. If
the heretic could baptize, he could also give the Holy
Ghost. But if he who is without the Church canuot give
the Holy Ghost, because he is himself without the Holy
Ghost, neither can he baptize the convert : for there is
one baptism, and one Holy Spirit, and one Church,
founded by the Lord Christ upon Peter, [or upon a rock .]
so that in its very foundation it may bear the mark of
unity. Hence it follows, that since among them every
thing is false and empty, nothing of their doing in such
matters ought to be acknowledged by us."

The same question is discussed in one or two other
epistles about this time ; and now it had become evident
that the Bishop of Rome was proceeding to violent counsels,
and Cyprian was the more anxious to obtain the highest
authority in vindication of the truth. He assembled, there-
fore, a second synod of seventy-two bishops. The decision
of this'synod was the same as that of the preceding, and
Cyprian lays it before Stephen, as the synodical determin-
ation of the province over which he presided.

Another opponent to the rule of Cyprian and his com-
provincials occurs in the person of one Jubaianus. As he
proposes some new arguments, we will give the substance
of Cyprian's answer. Some, it seems, argued, that since
Nova ti an affected to baptize those who deserted to him from
the Church, therefore the Church ought to receive heretics
without baptism, lest Catholics should seem so far to sym-
bolize with Novatian, and to have borrowed his custom.

In answer to this notable argument, St. Cyprian ob-

CYPRIAN. 357

serves that it would be as reasonable to put off the proper
conduct of humanity, because in some things apes have
imitated men ; as for the Church to desert her customs,
because they had been aped by Novatian. And he argues,
ad hominem, (and the argument is of very general applica-
tion, and well worth repeating,) *' Is it really to be held
a sufficient reason for not doing this, that Novatian has
done it ? What then ? Since Novatian usurps the honour
of an episcopate, are we to renounce our episcopacy ? Or,
because Novatian endeavours to erect an altar, and against
all right to offer sacrifice, are we to desert our altar, and
to relinquish our sacrifice ?"

An argument more worthy of Cyprian's attention occurs
next : one, indeed, which hinged on the very principle on
which the Church Catholic afterwards determined the
present question. I find, says Cyprian, in the letter
which you transmitted to me, a notion, that we ought not
to enquire who was the minister of baptism in any par-
ticular case ; since the baptized may receive remission of
sins, according to that which he believed ; as that Mar-
cionites, for instance, need not to be baptized, since they
have received a semblance of baptism, in the name of
Jesus Christ.

Let us take Cyprian's solution of this difficulty in his
own words.

" We ought therefore to examine the faith of those who
believe, out of the Church, to determine whether it be
such as that they can on account of it obtain any grace.
For if there be but one faith common to us and to
heretics, there may be one grace also. If the Patri-
passians, for instance, the Valentiniani, the Ophitae, the
Marcionites, and other pestilent sects., the very poison and
dagger of the truth, confess the same Father, the same
Son, the same Holy Spirit, the same Church, that we
confess, they may share with us in our baptism, since
their faith also is one with ours. Let us examine the case
of Marcion for instance. Now does Marcion hold the
doctrine of the Trinity ? Does he ascribe creation to the

358 CYPRIAN.

same Father with us ? Does he recognize the same Son,
Christ born of the Virgin Mary, Who is the word made
flesh, Who bare our sins, Who by His death conquered
death, Who was the first-fruits and the promise of the
resurrection to us, in His flesh, so as to assure His disci-
ples that they also should rise in the same flesh ? Far
different is the faith of Marcion, and of the rest of the
heretics ! How, therefore, can it be made to appear, that
they who are baptized among them can receive remission
of sins, and the grace of God, on account of their faith,
when their very faith itself is a lie ? For if as some
imagine, one who is without the Church, can receive any
thing according to his faith ; surely he must receive that
which he believes : he then who believes a lie cannot
receive the truth ; but rather, accoi'ding to his faith, he
receives impurity and profanation.

" Again, if one could be baptized among heretics, he
might also receive remission of sins : and with remission
of sins, sanctification ; and he is made the temple of God.
But, I ask, of what God? Not of the Creator; for in
Him he believes not. Not of Christ ; for he denies that
Christ is God. Not of the Holy Ghost; f)r since the Three
are one God, how can the Holy Ghost be propitiated by him,
who is the enemy either of the Father or of the Son ?"

Such expressions were of course open to the imputation
of bigotry, from those who could not understand, that the
most energetic maintenance of the truth, the utmost
hatred of error, is not inconsistent with true love, and
personal forbearance. Against the pseudo-charity, there-
fore, or liberalism of some, he presents the following
admirable exposition of a passage from the epistle to the
Philippiiins, which had been claimed then, as it is con-
tinually now, as favouring such principles.

" As f(n' the fancy of some, that the words of St. Paul,
Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or truth,
let Christ be preached, afford any sanction to the proceed-
ings of heretics, we are convinced that they give no sup-
port either to heretics or to their abettors. For, in truth,

CYPRIAN; 359

St. Paul was not speaking of heretics, or of any thing
concerning them. The two classes of persons whose
preaching he mentions, were both of the brethren ; though
some were disorderly in their conduct, and regardless of
the laws of the Church, while the rest preserved the truth
of the Gospel with a due reverence and fear. Now while
some of these constantly and boldly preached the word of
the Lord, and some of envy and ill will ; while some
maintained a sincere love for his person, but others were
filled with hatred and malevolence; he patiently endured
all, since, whether in pretence or in truth, the name of
Christ, which he also preached, came to the knowledge of
many; and the preaching of all, though perhaps some
were novices and imperfectly taught, yet prevailed to the
spread of truth. Now surely it is one thing for those who
are within the Church to speak of Christ ; and another
for those who are without the Church, and its enemies, to
baptize in the name of Christ. Let not those then who
would vindicate the proceedings of heretics, adduce the
expressions of St. Paul concerning brethren : but let them
point out some place in which he grants that any thing is
to be conceded to heretics, in which he approves their
faith and baptism, in which he has taught that they who
are in schism, and are blasphemers, can obtain remission
of their sins, without the pale of the Church." He then
proceeds to note what St. Paul does say of heretics, and
of the zeal with which we should oppose their errors ; and
the fear with which we should renounce their fellowship.

The argument of expediency was also pressed against
St. Cyprian's rule ; it was objected, that the necessity of
being baptized would repel heretics from the Church, and
that it would bring on the Church unnecessary odium.
These objections St. Cyprian answers with characteristic
courage and decision, plainly declaring, that in such cases
the boldest way, that of the highest principle is the best.
As for the heretics, if their baptism be admitted, it will
tend to make them think, from the very testimony of the
Church, that they in their separation are not cut off from

000 CYrRIAN.

(he privilege of true Christians ; but if they find that their
baptism is disallowed, they will perhaps, be alarmed into
a more serious view of their position, and make the greater
haste to regain the privileges which they have lost. As
for the dreaded odium of rebajotizing : if we dare not incur
this, shall we not involve ourselves in a greater difficulty?
for if we grant a true baptism to heretics, we grant that
not right and prescription, but mere and usurped poiises-
sion, is the only title to this privilege : and thus one of
the noblest parts of the appanage of the Church is not
only seized by others, but yielded by ourselves. But how
perilous it may be to surrender our rights in spiritual
matters, we are divinely taught by the example of Esau ;
who found no place for repentance, having sold his birth-
right.

Stephen from the first interfered in the question with
extreme arrogance, and with an intemperance which we
are at a loss to reconcile with the charity of a Christian
Jiishop. Cyprian and the Church of Carthage laboured
for peace, but in vain, and the last effort which the Africans
made to retain peace with Rome, seems to have been after
Stephen had so scandalously abused Cyprian, as to call
him a false Christ, a false Apostle, a deceitful worker;
and after he had fulminated his excommunications against
the whole Church of Carthage. Even after this the
Africans sent messengers to Rome to bring things to a
better state if possible ; but their message was rejected,
and their envoys treated with disrespect and contumely.

Things being now in such a deplorable condition,
Cyprian, seeking countenance in the consent of good and
great men in the Church, communicated the whole affair
to Firmilian, one of those Asiatic Bishops who were
already in the same condemnation with himself, and for
the same cause. Firmilian had been a pupil of Origen ;
he was Bishop of Cesaraea, in Cappadocia, and was a
prelate of great note in his day : and his long reply to
Cyprian's communication amply sustains his character
with posterity.

CYPRIAN. 361

It is enough to add, that his judgment is wholly the
same as that of Cyprian.

But the most important step which Cyprian took was
the calling a council of eighty-five bishops, at which also
the priests and deacons with much people were present,
and at which, without a single dissentient voice, the judg-
ment of Cyprian was affirmed. Thus the eighty-five
bishops assembled at this council, with two others who
voted therein by proxy, unanimously agreed, that heretics
ought to be baptized on their conversion to the Church ;
and thus, by their synodical act, they deliberately chose
the condemnation of Stephen and his Church, before
a submission to that authority, when their consciences
were opposed to its dictates. They were already, indeed,
excommunicated by Stephen ; unless we rather hold with
Firmilian, that Stephen, by his excommunication of the
African churches, had cut himself off from the Church of
Christ. But in thus voluntarily binding the burden of
his anathema upon themselves, rather than bending be-
neath the weight of a new custom imposed by his Church,
surely the African bishops in the council spoke volumes,
as to their judgment of Rome as an infallible Church, and
of her bishop as the centre of unity.

The external peace of the Church, which left opportu-
nity for these internal discords, was disturbed, before they
were well hushed. Valerian had been hitherto most
friendly to the Christians, but now, at the instigation of
his minister, Macrianus, he became a persecutor, and
issued decrees to the several parts of his empire, for the
suppression of Christianity.

In September, '^57, the imperial edict reached Carthage,
where Paternus was pro-consul ; and Cyprian, as the most
prominent in character and office among the Christians,
was the first to be summoned before the heathen tribunal.
Of what passed on that occasion, we have a circumstantial
record in the acts of St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr.

" The most sacred Emperors, Valerianus and Gallienus,
-have honoured me with their commands," said Paternus,

VOL. IV. 2 M

362 CYPRIAN.

•' to exact of those, who worship not the gods of Rome, a
due recognitioD of the Roman rites. I would examine
you therefore concerning your name and profession : what
is your answer ?" I am a Christian", said Cyprian, " and
a Bishop. I know no other gods but that One only and
true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and
all that therein is. Him do we Christians serve : Him
night and day do we supplicate for ourselves, for all men,
and for the preservation of the Emperors themselves."
Paternus asked ; "Do you persist in this determina-
tion ?" Cyprian replied : " A good determination, taken
up in the knowledge of God, is unchangeable." " Are
you ready, then," said the j^ro-cousul, " according to the
edict of Valerian and Gallienus, to be exiled to the city of
Gurubis?" " I am ready," said Cyprian.

Then the pro-consul, having thus received the profession
of Cyprian, and appointed the place of his banishment,
endeavoured to extort from him the name of others who
were obnoxious to the same sentence. " My commission
extends," said he, " not only to the bishops, but also to
the presbyters of your party : 1 ask you, then, who are the
presbyters in the city ?" The bishop replied, " your laws
have well provided against the abuse of informers ; in
obedience to them I refuse to betray my brethren : they
may be found, however, in their own places." " But I
will know who they are now, and in this place," said
Paternus. Cyprian said, "It is equally contrary to the
discipline of their order, and to the spirit of your laws,
that they should expose themselves unforced : yet they
may be found by you, if you do but seek them out."
Paternus said, "They shall be found out: for I have
commanded that none shall hold assemblies any where,
nor enter your cemeteries ; and if any venture to dis-
obey this wholesome provision they shall suffer death."
Cyprian replied : " Obey the orders which you have
received."

Cyprian had been eleven months in his exile, and in
the interval Galerius Maximus had succeeded Aspasius

CYPRIAN. 363

Paternus in the proconsulate. The new proconsul recalled
Cyprian, though not for any purposes of mercy ; but
rather, in all probability, that he might be more entirely
within his power.

At length the glorious day of his martyrdom dawned,
and he was conveyed to the residence of the proconsul,
still accompanied by his affectionate children in the faith.
When he arrived at the Praetorium, the proconsul had
not yet taken his seat on the tribunal ; he was permitted
therefore to retire to a less public place, and there, hot
and tired with his journey, he reclined on a seat which
had been accidently left covered with a linen cloth : so
that in the very article of his passion, he was not without
some insignia of his sacred function. One of the guard,
who had formerly been a Christian, offered him a change
of vestments, proposing to keep the garments of the
martyr as a valuable relic ; but Cyprian rejected the
proffered luxury, observing on the folly of too solicitous
a use of remedies for those evils, which can last but for
a day.

At length Galerius Maximus assumed his place in the
judgment-hall, and Cyprian being brought before him, he
said, " Art thou Thascius Cyprian ?" Cyprian answered,
**Iam." "Art thou he," said Maximus, "who hath
borne the highest offices of their religion, among the
Christians ?" " Yes," answered the bishop. " The most
sacred Emperors have commanded that you offer sacrifice,"
said the proconsul. "I will not offer sacrifice," replied
Cyprian. " Be persuaded," said the proconsul, " for your
own sake." Cyprian replied, "Do thou as thou hast
received orders : for me, in so just a cause, no persuasion
can move me." After these words he pronounced from
his tablet, " Let Thascius Cyprian be beheaded."

" Thanks be to God !" said Cyprian : and the crowd of
Christians who surrounded him exclaimed, " Let us die
with him !"

The holy martyr was then led away, followed by a great
concourse of people, to an open field near the place where

S64 CYPRIAN.

he had received his sentence ; and having put o£F the rest
of his garments, and committed them to the deacous, he
first prostrated himself in pra3^er to God, and then stood
in his inner vestments, prepared for the fatal stroke. He
tied the bandage over his eyes with his own hands ; and
that he might owe that office to friends which he could not
himself perform, Julian, a presbyter, and a sub-deacon of
the same name, bound his hands. To the executioner he
appropriated a gift of twenty-five pieces of gold : the
Christians, whose avarice was not mercenary, sought no
other memorials than handkerchiefs dyed with the blood
of their bishop. The body was for a while exposed to the
gaze of the heathen ; but having been removed by night,
by the brethren, it was buried in the Mappalian way.
Two churches afterwards marked the spots which had
been consecrated by his death and by his burial.

Thus died Thascius Csecilius Cyprian, with a courage
too common in those days to excite our surprise, but of
such intrinsic merit as to demand our admiration. He
was the first Bishop of Carthage who had attained to the
crown of martyrdom ; and he was truly worthy of this
high distinction. Few men have more forcibly arrested
.the affections of their associates : few have more powerfully
influenced the opinions of others ; none have been more
honoured by posterity. The wish which broke from the
tumultuous assembly at his condemnation, to die with
him, was uttered afterwards coolly and solemnly by his
deacon Pontius : but his widowed Church rather lamented
her own misfortune than his ; and soon learned to glory
in his crown more than she lamented her own loss. His
name was long a household word with the Church which
he had governed, and even the heathen paid to his
memory the tribute of respect. — The Life, or rather Pane-
gyric, of St. Cyprian by Pontius his Deacon. The Life of
Cyprian in the Benedictine Edition of his Works, and in
that of Bishops Pearson and Fell: and Poole s Life and
Times of St. Cyprian.

CYRIL. 365

CYBIL.

Saint Cyril, of Jerusalem, was born probably about
the year 315, and though the place of his birth is unknown,
he was certainly educated at Jerusalem. He was ordained
deacon probably by Macarius, and priest by Maximus,
Bishops of Jerusalem, the latter of whom he succeeded in
349 or 350. Shortly before this, in 347 or 348, before he
was bishop, he delivered the Catechetical Lectures which
have come down to us. The circumstances of his conse-
cration were unfortunate, it being certain that Acacius of
Oaesarea, was one of his consecrators, and Acacius was
one of the leaders of Arianism in the East, who, in 347,
had been deposed by the council of Sardica. It ought to
be remembered, however, that the council of Sardica was
at first as little acknowledged by the Orthodox as by the
Arians, and Cyril was a moderate man, avoiding as much
as possible party spirit ; when, therefore, he was canonically
consecrated by the Bishops of the province, and among
them Acacius appeared, he did not object to him. But
St. Cyril did not remain long on good terms with Acacius.
Acacius, notwithstanding his deposition by the council of
Sardica, continued to occupy the see of Csesarea, and he
soon entered into a controversy on the subject of his
metropolitan rights w^ith St. Cyril, who, possessing an
apostolical see, alleged, that he was independent of his
jurisdiction ; the difference between them was augmented
by the opposition of their opinions : for Acacius preached
up Arianism, and St. Cyril followed the Catholic faith,
maintaining the consubstantiality of the Son, and accusing
the other of error in his faith. Acacius, who had a piercing
wit, and was very active, was before-hand with St. Cyril,
and cited him frequently ; but St. Cyril, not acknowledging
him as his superior, took care not to appear. During
this time Acacius made use of the pretence of his not
appearing to get him deposed in a council, for having
refused for two successive years to answer the accusations

VOL IV. 2n

366 CYRIL,

alleged against him : the chief heads of the accusation
against St. Cyril were, that he had sold the treasures of
the Church. True it is, that the territories of Jerusalem
being afflicted with famine, the people chiefly applied to
St. Cyril for relief ; but as he had no money, he sold cer-
tain vessels and rich stuffs which were reserved for the
service of the Church. It was alleged, that after this, a
certain person met an actress dressed in a rich stuff which
himself had given to the Church ; upon which, he with
great exactness informed himself where she had got it,
and found that she had bought it of a shop-keeper who
had bought it of the Bishop. These are the pretences
which Acacius made use of to depose St. Cyril.

Not believing himself justly condemned, he appealed to
a higher tribunal, and sent the appeal to those who had
opposed him ; the Emperor Constantius authorized this
appeal, yet was it esteemed irregular, and St. Cjril accused
for being the first that ever appealed from an ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, as if it had been a secular tribunal. Acacius
not only deposed St. Cyril, but also drove him out of
Jerusalem : Cyril went to Antioch, which he found with-
out a Bishop, for Leontius was dead, and had not yet
a successor. He therefore went to Tarsus, and lived with
Sylvanus the Bishop. Acacius being informed of it, wrote
to Sylvanus, and gave him an account of St. Cyril's being
deposed ; but notwithstanding this, Sylvanus did not hin-
der him from officiating in the Church, as well on account
of the respect which he had for him, as in consideration of
the people who received his instructions with a great deal
of satisfaction.

Although, during his exile, he certainly associated occa-
sionally with Semi-Arians, yet his orthodoxy is, from his
works, unquestionable. In 359, two years after his depo-
sition, he appealed with success against Acacius to the
council of Seleucia, but the' next year, through, the influ-
ence of Acacius with the Emperor Constantius, he was
again deposed, and banished from Palestine.

CYRIL. 367

On the accession of Julian the Apostate, who desired to
sow the seeds of confusion in all the Churches, the ban-
ished Bishops were permitted to return to their sees ; and
in 365 Cyril returned to Jerusalem. And here he wit-
nessed Julian's attempt to rebuild the temple, and from
the prophecies predicted its failure.

To rebuild the temple was thought by the apostate
Emperor to be the surest method of refuting Christianity,
and of proving our prophecies to be unworthy of credit.
He encouraged the Jews, therefore, to set about the work.
Never was any miracle more fully confirmed by evidence
than this. Bishop Warburton has ably answered all that
can be advanced by the sceptics, and even the sceptical
Jortin is obliged to confess, "after all, it is an ugly circum-
stance, I wish we could get fairly rid of it." The uglines.s
of the circumstance being, that Archdeacon Jortin was
determined not to believe, and yet could give no sound
reason for his infidelity; for, as Bishop Warburton remarks :
*' No believer, but must conclude that God would indeed
interpose to vindicate the character of His Son : no man,
but must confess that to support a religion like this, was
an occasion worthy the interposition of the Lord of all
things."

The account of the failure of this attempt to rebuild the
temple, shall be given in the words of Arminianus Mar-
cellinus, a heathen, and an admirer of Julian. " Julian
committed the conduct of this affair to Alypius of Antioch,
who formerly had been lieutenant in Britain. When, there-
fore, this Alypius had set himself to the vigorous execu-
tion of his charge, in which he had all the assistance that
the governor of the province could afford him, horrible
balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, with fre-
quent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place from time
to time inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen,
and the victorious element continuing in this manner,
obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them
to a distance, Alypius thought best to give over the enter-
prize."

368 CYRIL.

St. Cyril was again driven into banishment under the
Arian Emperor Valens, and remained in exile from 367
to 378.

Valens was the last of the x\rian Emperors, and
with him the Arian party fell in the East. A union
between all Christian Churches then took place, as they
had been kept asunder rather by party prejudices than
by principles, the differences having been fostered
by the ambition of eloquent Arian preachers. In the
second general council, held at Constantinople, in 381, U>
appease the troubles of the East, and to condemn the
heresy of Macedonius, who blasphemously taught that the
Holy Ghost was a creature, we find Gregory of Nyssa,
Gregory Nazianzen, and Meletius of Antioch, sitting with
Cyril, and all of them united in sentiment. By this
council he was restored to his see ; and, as if to refute the
calumny of his being an Arian, he is described as " the
Reverend and religious Cyril, in many ways and places a
withstander of the Arians." He died about 386.

" I know of no writer," says Dr. Waterland, " who has
given a fuller, or clearer, or in the main, juster account of
the holy Eucharist, than this the elder Cyril has done ;
though he has often been strangely misconstrued by con-
tending parties. The true and ancient notions of the
Eucharist came now to be digested into somewhat of a
more regular and accurate form, and the manner of speak-
ing of it became, as it were, fixed and settled upon rules
of art. Cyril expresses himself thus, ' receive we [the
Eucharist] with all fulness of faith, as the Body and Blood
of Christ : for, under the type [or symbol] of bread, you
have His body given you, and under the type [symbol] of
wine, you receive His Blood ; that so partaking of the
Body and Blood of Christ, you may become flesh of His
Flesh, and blood of His Blood. For, by this means, we
carry Christ about us, in as much as His Body and Blood
are distributed into our members : thus do we become,
according to St. Peter, partakers of the Divine nature.'
The doctrine here taught is, that in the Eucharist wo

CYRIL. 369

receive (not literally, but symbolically) the natural Body
and Blood of Christ ; just as the priests of old, in eating
the sacrifices, symbolically, but effectually, ate up the sins
of the people, or as the faithful Israelites, in eating manna
and drinking of the rock, effectually fed upon Christ.
The symbolical Body and Blood are here supposed by our
author to supply the place of the natural, and to be in
construction and beneficial effect (not substantially) the
same thing with it ; and so he speaks of our becoming
by that means one flesh and one blood with Christ, mean-
ing it in as high a sense, as all the members of Christ
are one body, or as man and wife are one flesh. We carry
Christ about us, as we are mystically united to Him.
His Body and Blood are considered as intermingled with
ours, when the symbols of them really and strictly are so :
for the benefit is completely the same ; and God accepts
of such symbolical union, making it, to all saving pur-
poses and intents, as effectual, as any the most real could
be. Cyril never thought of any presence of Christ's
natural Body and Blood in the Sacrament, excepting in
mystery and figure, (which he expresses by the word type)
and in real benefits and privileges.

" He goes on to obseiTe, that our Lord once told the
Jews (John vi. 54.) of eating His flesh, &c. And they not
understanding that it was spoken spiritually, [but taking
the thing literally.] were offended at it, as if He had been
persuading them to devour His flesh. Hence it appears
farther, that our author was no friend to the gross, literal
construction. He proceeds as follows ; ' Under the New
Testament we have that heavenly bread, and a cup of
salvation, sanctifying both body and soul; for as bread
answers to body, so the logos suits with the soul.' This
thought may be compared with another of Clemens above,
somewhat like, and somewhat different. But both agree
in two main points, that the Eucharist sanctifies the
worthy receiver both in body and soul, and that Christ is
properly present in His divine nature. Wherefore Cyril

370 CYRIL.

had the more reason for pressing his exhortation after-
wards in high and lofty terms : ' consider them [the ele-
ments] not as mere bread and wine ; for by our Lord's
express declaration, they are the Body and Blood of
Christ. And though your taste may suggest that to you,
[viz. that they are mere bread and wine,] yet let your faith
keep you firm. Judge not of the thing by your taste, but
under a full persuasion of faith, be ye undoubtedly
assured, that you are vouchsafed the Body and Blood of
Christ.' This he said to draw off the minds of his audi-
ence from low and carnal apprehensions, that so they
might view those mysteries with the eye of faith, and not
merely with the eye of sense ; might look through the
outward sign, to the inward thing signified, and regale
their spiritual taste more than the sensual. This is what
Cyril really meant : though some mbderns, coming to
read him either with transubstantiation or consubstantia-
tion in their heads, have amused themselves with odd
constructions of very innocent words.

" As to his exhorting his audience not to take the ele-
ments for mere bread and wine, it is just such another
kind of address as he had before made to them, first in
relation to the waters of Baptism, and next with regard to
the Chrism. ' Look not to this laver, as to ordinary
water, but (attend) to the grace conferred with the water.'
Would any sensible man conclude from hence, that the
water was transubstantiated, according to our author, into
some other substance ; Let us go on to what he says of
the chrism. ' Have a care of suspecting that this is ordi-
nary ointment, [or mere ointment;] for, like as the sacra-
mental bread, after the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is
no more bare bread, but the Body of Christ, so also this
holy unguent is no more bare ointment, nor to be called
common, after the invocation ; but it is the grace of Christ "
and of the Holy Spirit, endowed with special energy by
the presence of His Godhead ; and it is symbolically
spread over the forehead and other parts of the body. So

CYRIL. 371

then the body is anointed with the visible unguent, but
the soul is sanctioned by the enlivening Spirit.'

" I cite not this, as approving all that Cyril has here said
of the chrism, (not standing upon Scripture authority,)
but to give light to what he has said of the Eucharist,
which he compares with the other, while he supposes the
cases parallel. He conceived the elements in one case,
and the unguent in the other, to be exhibitive symbols of
spiritual graces, instrumentally conveying what they repre-
sent. The bread and wine, according to his doctrine, are
symbolically the Body and Blood : and by symbolically
he means the very same thing which I have otherwise
expressed by saying, that they are the Body and Blood in
just construction and beneficial efifect. What Cyril feared
with respect to Baptism, and the Eucharist, and the
Unction, was, that many in low life (coming perhaps from
the plough, the spade, or the pale) might be dull of appre-
hension, and look no higher than to what they saw, felt,
or tasted. Upon the like suspicion was grounded the
ancient solemn preface to the Communion Service, called
Sursum Corda by the Latins : wherein the officiating
minister admonished the communicants to lift up their
hearts, and they made answer. We lift them up unto the
Lord.

" To make the point we have been upon still plainer,
let Cyril be heard again, as he expresses the thing in a
succeeding lecture. ' You hear the Psalmist with divine
melody inviting you to the communion of the holy mys-
teries, and saying, Taste and see how gracious the Lord
is. Leave it not to the bodily palate to judge : no, but to
faith clear of all doubting. For the tasters are not com-
manded to taste bread and wine, but the antitype [sym-
bol] of the Body and Blood of Christ.' Here our author
plainly owns the elements to be types, or symbols, (as he
had done also before,) and therefore not the very things
whereof they are symbols ; not literally and strictly, but
interpretatively, mystically, and to all saving pui^poses and

372 CYRIL.

intents ; which suflaces. It is no marvel if Mr. Toutee
and other Romanists interpret Cjril to quite another
purpose : but one may justly wonder how the learned and
impartial Dr. Grabe should construe Cyril in that gross
sense, which he mentions under the name of augmenta-
tion. I presume, he read Cyril with an eye to modern
controversy, and did not consider him as speaking to
mechanics and day-labourers : or, he was not aware of the
difference there is, between telling men what they are to
believe, and what they ought to attend to, which was
Cyril's chief aim. As to believing, he very well knew that
every one would believe his senses, and take bread to be
bread, and wine to be wine, as himself believed also : but
he was afraid of their attending so entirely to the report
of their senses, as to forget the reports of sacred Writ,
which ought to be considered at the same time, and with
closer attention than the other, as being of everlasting
concernment. In short, he intended no lecture of faith
against eyesight : but he endeavoured, as much as possi-
ble, to draw off their attention from the objects of sense
to the object of faith, and from the signs to the things
signified.

' "It has been urged, as of moment, that Cyril compared
the change made in the Eucharist to the miraculous
change of water into wine wrought by our Lord in Cana
of Galilee. It is true that he did so : but similitudes
commonly are no arguments of any thing more than of
some general resemblance. There was power from above
in that case, and so is there in this : and it may be justly
called a supernatural power; not upon the elements
to change their nature, but upon the communicants to
add spiritual strength to their souls. The operation in
the Eucharist is no natural work of any creature, but
the supernatural grace of God's Holy Spirit. Therefore
Cyril's thought was not much amiss, in resembling one
supernatural operation to another, agreeing in the general
thing, differing in specialities. In a large sense of the

CYRIL. 373

word miracle, there are miracles of grace, as well as
miracles of nature ; and the same Divine power operates
in both, but in a different way, as the ends and objects
are different."

Socrates. Sozomen. Theodoret. Cave. Warhiirton. Wa-
terland. Ammiamis MarcelUnus.

This Father was raised up by the Providence of God
to defend the faith of the Incarnation of His only Be-
gotten Son, of which mystery he is styled the doctor, as
St. Augustine is the doctor of the mystery of grace. He
was brought up under Serapion, on Mount Nitria. He
displayed great diligence in study, and is said to have
known the New Testament by heart. After five years'
abode on Mount Nitria, his uncle Theophilus, Bishop of
Alexandria, summoned him to that town, and ordained
him. He expounded and preached with great reputation.
The works of Origen he held in abhorrence, and would
neither read them himself nor have communication with
those who did ; but he was well read in the works of the
Fathers who preceded him. In the year 412 he suc-
ceeded his uncle in the see of Alexandria. His election,
however, was not carried without difficulty, as many
wished to elect the Archdeacon Timotheus. Abundantius,
who commanded the forces, took part with the latter,
and a tumult actually occurred : however, Cyril prevail-
ed, and was enthroned three days after the death of
Theophilus. The victory which he had gained over the
opposite party, gave him more authority than Theophilus
himself had enjoyed ; and from that time the bishops
of Alexandria exceeded a little the limits of the spi-
ritual power, and assumed some share in the temporal
government. The first thing Cyril did was to shut up
the churches of the Novatians, and to seize on all their
treasures.

VOL. ly. 3 o

374 CYRIL.

The early days of his episcopate were days of trouble ;
a«d several circumstances occurred in which it is impos-
sible to justify the conduct of Cyril. The impetuosity of
his temper hurried him into some excesses. He was thus
active in driving the Jews from Alexandria, under the
following circumstances. One day, as Orestes, governor
of the city, was making proclamations in the theatre,
several Christians, who were attached to the bishop, drew
near to hear the ordinances of the governor ; and among
others, a certain man named Hierax, who was master of a
crrammar school, a zealous auditor of the bishop, and a
most active man in exciting plaudits in his sermons.
The Jews, always hostile to the Christians, and at that
time particularly provoked on the subject of certain
dancers, seeing Hierax in the theatre, immediately cried
out that he only came to excite a tumult. Orestes had
been long offended at the power of the bishops, which
lessened that of the governors, and therefore believing
that St. Cyril meant to control his ordinances, he caused
Hierax to be seized, and scourged publicly in the theatre.
When St. Cyril heard this, he sent for the principal Jews,
and threatened them with severe punishments, unless
they gave over raising tumults against the Christians ;
but this only exasperated the multitude the more. They
resolved to attack the Christians by night, and having
taken for a sign of recognition among themselves rings
made of the bark of young palm-branches, they cried
through the city that the church of Alexandria was on fire.
The Christians repaired thither from all parts, and the
Jews fell upon them, and killed a great number of them.
On the next day the authors of this massacre were dis-
covered, and St. Cyril went with a great body of people
to the Jews' synagogues, and having taken possession of
them, he expelled the Jews from the city, and delivered
up their property to be plundered. Thus were the Jews
expelled from Alexandria, where they lived ever since the
time of Alexander the Great, its founder. Orestes took
this proceeding very ill, and looked upon it as a great

CYEIL. 375

misfortune, that such a city should lose at once so great a
number of inhabitants. He made his rejoort of the matter
to the Emperor, to whom St. Cyril likewise wrote an ac-
count of the crimes of the Jews.

However, being solicited by the people, he sent to
Orestes lo propose a reconciliation, and conjured him to
agree to it, even by the books of the Gospels ; but Orestes
would not hear of it. Then the monks of Mount Nitria,
who had zealously espoused the interest of the Bishop
Theophilus against Dioscorus, and the Four Brothers, left
their monasteries and came to Alexandria, to the number
of five hundred. They kept watch for the governor
Orestes as he was going abroad in his chariot ; and
coming up to him, they called him pagan and idolater,
with other injurious names. Orestes suspecting that
Cyril had laid a snare for him, cried out that he was a
Christian, and that he had been baptized by the Bishop
Atticus at Constantinople : but the monks would not hear
him, and one of them, whose name was Ammonius, stnick
him on the head with a stone, which covered him with
blood. His officers, terrified at the shower of stones, dis-
persed ; but the people came to his assistance, and put
the monks to flight. Ammonius was taken, and carried
before the governor, who brought him to trial, and tortured
him to death. St. Cyril took up his body and laid it in
a church, changing his name into that of Thaumasius, or
"Admirable," and would have had him acknowledged for
a martyr, but the wisest among the Christians did not
approve of this proceeding, for they saw that Ammonius
had undergone the punishment of his rashness, and soon
after St. Cyril himself suffered the affair to drop into
silence and oblivion.

The people did not stop there. They pretended that
an illustrious lady, named Hypatia, prevented the prsefect
Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. She was
daughter to the philosopher Theon, and so learned that
she excelled all the philosophers of her time. She had
succeeded to the Platonic school, and taught in public, so

376 CYRIL.

that people came to her from all parts : and we have
several letters from Synesius to her, in which he acknow-
ledges himself her disciple. Her learning was attended
with great modesty, which gained her much respect and
influence with the magistrates. She used often to see
Orestes, which gave occasion to the suspicion that she
incensed him against St. Cyril. On this a set of violent
men, headed by a reader named Peter, watched for her
one day, as she was going home to her house, pulled her
out of her carriage, and dragged her to the church called
CsEsareum ; they stripped off her clothes, killed her with
the blows of broken pots, tore her to pieces, and burned
her limbs at a place called Cinaro. " This action," says
the historian Socrates, " brought great reproach upon
Cyril, and on the Church of Alexandria ; for such acts of
violence are very far removed from Christianity." Then
he adds, " This happened in the fourth year of the
episcopate of Cyril, under the tenth consulate of Hono-
rius, and the sixth of Theodosius, in the month of
March, during the Fasts," that is, in the Lent of tlie
year 415.

After this we hear little of St. Cyril until the com-
mencement of the Nestorian controversy in 529. We
may therefore presume that he was growing in that grace
by which his natural impetuosity of character ripened into
real Christian zeal. He shewed himself indeed during
this time open to conviction ; for, having inherited from
his uncle, the late bishop, certain prejudices against
St Chrysostom, he listened to the persuasions of Isidore
of Pelusium, and set down his name in the Ecclesiastical
Ptegister, thereby declaring that his deposition had been
unjust. The churches of Egypt, Lilvya, and Pentapolis,
had, before this, taken the opposite side in this question.
Tha Pope of Rome had no more authority in those days
than any other patriarch ; for, from the time of the depo-
sition of St. Chrysostom until this year 419, the churches
of Alexandria and of Rome, differing on this subject, were
not in communion ; the communion between the two

CYRIL. 377

churches was now restored. From this it will be seen
that communion with the see of Rome was not regarded
by the Alexandrians, any more than now by Anglicans, as
indispensable.

The origin of the Nestorian controversy was this : Nes-
torius, being aj^pointed Bishop of Constantinople, brought
with him from Antioch the priest Anastasius, his syn-
cellus and confidant. He preaching one day in the
church of Constantinople said, " Let no one call Mary
mother of God ; for she was a woman, and it is impossible
that God should be born of a human creature." These
words gave great offence to many both of the clergy and
laity: "for they had always been taught," says the his-
torian Socrates, " to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God,
and not to sever Him in any way from the Divinity."
Nestorius, however, declared his assent to what the priest
xlnastasius had thus advanced, and several sermons which
he delivered on the subject are still extant.

Immense excitement was occasioned, not only at Con-
stantinople, but throughout the provinces of the east and
west, especially when certain sermons were published by
Nestorius, asserting the heresy more distinctly. These
sermons were circulated among the monasteries of Egypt,
and were discussed among the monks.

St. Cyril, apprehensive that the error might take root,
wrote an encyclical letter to the monks of Egypt, wherein
he says that they would have done better wholly to have
refrained from questions of so great difficulty, and that
what he writes to them is intended, not to keep up the
dispute, but to arm them in defence of the truth. " I
wonder," says he, " how a question can be raised as to
whether the Holy Virgin should be called Mother of God ;
for if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how is not the Holy
Virgin, His mother, Mother of God ? This is the faith
we have been taught by the Apostles, although they did
not make use of this expression ; it is the doctrine of our
fathers, among the rest of Athanasius, of blessed memory,"
2o2

^'8 CYRIL.

and he quotes two passages in support of his statement.
He next proves that He Who was born of the Holy Virgin
is God in His ow^n nature, since the Nicene Creed sajs
that the onl}^ begotten son of God, of the same substance
with the Father, Himself came down from heaven, and
w^as incarnate. He proceeds : " You will say, perhaps.
Is the Virgin, then, mother of the Divinity ? We answer.
It is certain that the Word is eternal, and of the sub-
stance of the Father. Now in the order of nature,
mothers, who have no part in the creation of the soul, are
still called mothers of the whole man, and not of the
body only;— for surely it would be a hypercritical refine-
ment to say Elizabeth is mother of the body of John
and not of his soul. In the same way, then, we express
ourselves in regard to the birth of Emmanuel ; t^ince
the Word having taken flesh upon Him, is called the Son
of Man."

Nestorius was extremely irritated by this letter, and
endeavoured to injure St. Cyril by suborning men to
calumniate and accuse him to himself and the Emperor.
St. Cyril wrote in vain to expostulate with Nestorius,
whose violence against his opponents exceeded all bounds*
and caused a petition to be presented to the Emperors
Theodosius and Valentinian to assemble a general coun-
cil. St. Cyril, hearing of these things, wrote a second
letter to Nestorius, in the year 430.

In this letter St. Cyril first observes that he is aware
of the calumnies with which he has been aspersed, and
that the authors of them are known to him ; but unwil-
ling to dwell on this ungrateful topic, he turns to
Nestorius himself and exhorts him, as his brother, to
reform his doctrine, and by giving in his adhesion to the
doctrine of the Fathers, to put an end to the offence he
had caused. He then enters upon an exposition of the
mystery of the Incarnation, and says, " We must admit
in the name of Christ two generations ; first, the eternal,
by which He proceeds from His Father ; second, the tern-

CYRIL. 379

poral, whereby He is born of His mother. When we say
that He suffered, and rose again, we do not say that God
the Word suffered in His own nature, for the Divinity
is impassible ; but because the body which was appro-
priated to Him suffered, we also say that He suffered
Himself. So too we say that He died. The Divine
Word is in His own nature immortal, He is life itself ;
but because His own true body suffered death, we say that
He Himself died for us. In the same way, when His
flesh is raised from the dead, we attribute resurrection to
Him. We do not say that we adore the man along with
the Word, lest the phrase along with should suggest the
idea of their non-identity ; but we adore Him as one and
the same person, because the body assumed by the Word
is in no degree external to or separated from the Word,"
And afterwards ; " It is in this sense that the Fathers
have ventured to call the tloly Virgin ' Mother of God ;'
not that the nature of the Word, or His Divinity, did
receive beginning of His existence from the Holy Virgin,
because in her was formed and animated with a reason-
able soul that sacred Body to which the Word united
Himself in hypostasis, which is the reason of its being
said that He was born according to the flesh." In the
course of this letter he frequently repeats the words
{■/My vTvoo-roLo-i)) Evajo-i?) 'union in hypostasis;' feeling the
inadequacy of the Greek word it^oarwTtov, which we ordi-
narily render ' person,' and which does not express the
idea of unity with sufficient strength. The first time
that we meet with the expression, ' hypostatical union,' is
in this letter, by far the most celebrated of all that
St. Cyril wrote to Nestorius.

It was probably about the same time and on the same
occasion that St. Cyril wrote to those of his clergy who
resided at Constantinople, commenting on the proposi-
tions of peace that were offered on the part of Nestorius.
" I have read the memorial you sent me," he says, " and
see from it that the priest Anastasius has been convers-
ing with you and pretending he seeks for peace, and that

380 CYKIL.

he said to jou, ' Our belief agrees with what he has
written to the monks;' and then proceeding to what he
really had in view, he says of me, ' He has himself ad-
mitted that the Nicene council nowhere makes mention
of the word Theotocos.' I wrote to say, that the council
did well not to mention it, because this matter was not
at that time a subject of controversy ; but in effect, it
does say that Mary is Mother of God ; since it says that
the same who was begotten of the Father, was incarnate,
and suffered." Afterwards, speaking of a writing of
Nestorius, he says, " He takes pains to prove that the
body alone suffered, and not God the Word; as if in
refutation of some who say that the impassible Word is
passible. No one has ever said anything so absurd.
His body having suffered, He is said to have suffered
Himself ; as we may say that the soul of man suffers
when his body suffers, even when, in strictness, the soul
is in its own nature free from suffering. But what they
wish to insinuate is, that there are two Christs, and two
sons, one properly man, the other properly God, and to
make a union only of persons, (Prosopwn) ; this is the
object of their chicanery."

There are several other letters of St. Cyril, in which he
expresses his readiness to defend himself in a general
council, but declares that instead of accepting Nestorius
as a judge, it was his intention to impeach him as a
heretic. He wrote also to the royal family, and to the
Bishop of Rome ; addressing the latter as his equal and
brother bishop, and seeking only from him that friendly
advice which he sought from other bishops of the larger
sees. Celestine, who was at that time Bishop of Rome,
agreed with St. Cyril in opinion, and gave him full
authority to refer to the Roman Church as agreeing with
the orthodox Churches of the East. Very different was
the treatment which St. Cyril received from another cele-
brated prelate, John of Antioch, who was the friend and
ally of Nestorius.

St. Cyril in this same year, 430, assembled a council

CYRIL. 381

at Alexandria, aad in the name of the council wrote a
synodicai letter to Xestorius, calling upon him to declare
in writing that he anathematized his impious tenets, and
that he would believe and teach " what we all of us
believe ; and when I say ice," he exclaimed, " I include
all the bishops of the East and West, and all who guide
the people. The holy council of Rome, and we, are all
agreed that the letters which have been written to you by
the Church of Alexandria are orthodox and free from
error." The reader will here observe, that he mentions
the Eastern before the Western church; and that he
refers not to the authority of the see of Rome, but to the
decisions of a council of that church, quoted simply to
shew that the Western church agreeing with the churches
of the East, there was universal consent as to the ortho-
doxy of the Alexandrian canons.

This letter concludes with twelve anathemas.

I. If any man confess not that Emmanuel is very
God, and consequently the Holy Virgin, Mother of God,
(since by her, according to the flesh, was conceived the
Word of God Who became flesh,) let him be anathema.

II. If any man confess not that the Word Which
proceeds from God the Father is united to the flesh
hypostatically, and that with His flesh He makes but
one only Christ, Who is both God and man, let him be
anathema.

III. If any one, after confessing the union, divide
the hypostases of the only Christ, joining them indeed
together, but only by a connection of dignity, authority, or
power, and not by a real union, let him be anathema.

» IV. If any attribute to two persons, or to two hypos-
tases, the things which the Apostles and Evangelists
relate, as spoken concerning Christ by the saints or by
Himself, and apply some to a man conceived of separately
as external to the Divine Word, and others (such as he
deems worthy of God) solely to the Word proceeding from
the Father; let him be anathema.

382 CYRIL.

V. If any dare to say that Christ is a id an who bears
God with Him, instead of saying that He is God indeed,
as only Son, and Son by nature, — inasmuch as the Word
was made flesh, and partook of flesh and blood, even as
we ; — let him be anathema.

VI. If any dare to say that the Word proceeding from
God the Father is the God or Lord of Jesus Christ, in-
stead of confessing that the same is entirely both God and
man, — since, according to the Scriptures, the Word was
made flesh ; — let him be anathema.

VII. If any man say that Jesus as man was possessed
by God the Word, and clothed with the glory of the only
Son, as if He were not identical with Him ; let him be
anathema.

VIII. If any dare to say that the man assumed by
the Word ought, along with the Word, to be glorified and
adored and called God, as if the one existed within the
other, (for this is the notion suggested by the perpetual
repetition of the phrase along with,) instead of honouring
Emmanuel with one entire adoration, and rendering to
Him one entire glorification, — forasmuch as the Word
was made flesh; — let him be anathema.

IX. If any say that our Lord Jesus Christ was glorified
by the Holy Ghost, as having received from Him a power
of acting against unclean spirits and working miracles
upon men, which was alien from Himself, instead of say-
ing that the Spirit by which he worked them belonged to
Him essentially ; let him be anathema.

X. Holy Scripture says that Jesus Christ was made
the High-Priest and Apostle of our faith, and that He
offered Himself for us to God the Father as a sweet smel-
ling sacrifice ; if any man therefore say that since the time
when our High-Priest and Apostle was made flesh and
man like us. He is not the Word of God but a man born
of a woman, as if this man were a diflerent person from
the Word : or if any say that Christ offered the sacrifice
for Himself, instead of saying, that it was solely for our

CYRIL. 383

sakes, (for He Who knew no sin stood in no need of any
sacrifice ;) let him be anathema.

XI. If any man confess not that the flesh of the Lord
gives Ufe, and belongs essentially to the Word Himself
Who proceeds from the Father, and attribute it to another
who is only joined to Him in respect of dignity, or by
virtue of a divine indwelling, instead of saying that
it gives life because it belongs essentially to the Word,
Who has the power of quickening all things ; let him be
anathema.

XII. If any man confess not that the Word of God
suffered according to the flesh, was crucified according to
the flesh, and was the first born among the dead, — foras-
much as He is life, and giveth life, as God; — let him be
anathema.

These are the twelve famous anathemas of St. Cyril
against all the heretical propositions advanced by
Nestorius.

Before this letter reached Constantinople, the Emperor
(not the pope) had convened a general council. At the
same time John of Antioch, a personal friend of Nestorius,
who had nevertheless entreated him to use the word
Theotokos, took offence at the twelve anathemas of St.
Cyril, thinking that they savoured of Apollinarianism,
and he employed Theodoret of Cyras, and Andrew of
Samosata to write against Cyril, who replied to both.

Immediately after the feast of Easter, St. Cyril set out
for Ephesus, the place at which the council was directed
to meet, accompanied by fifty bishops, nearly half of the
episcopate of his province, the other bishops remaining
behind to take care of the churches. x\t the same time
Nestorius repaired to Ephesus, with a great number of
troops and with some of the nobility. But John of An-
tioch with his bishops obliged the council, under various
pretences, to wait for them for a considerable time.

St. Cyril, while the assembled prelates were waiting for
John, preached, with his usual vehemence, and not always

384 CYRIL.

with discretion or good judgment, against Nestorius.
Acacius of Melitene preached on the same occasion and
in the same strain, to whose sermon allusion is here made
because he refers to " the cross which shines in front of
the churches." It seems evident from the silence of all
the writers of the three first centuries that crosses were
not then erected io churches. Eusebius, who frequently
describes the churches of Constantino, and others, never
once alludes to it, though he often mentions crosses set
up in other public places. From the fourth century
downward, it became more common ; partly, no doubt, in
consequence of Constantino's victory over Maxentius, and
the invention of the cross by Helena (a. d. 326). Sozomen
speaks of the cross as laid on the altar in his day, and
Evagrius speaks of silver crosses given by Chosroes to
one of the churches in Constantinople to be fixed upon
the altar.

John of Antioch sent to Cyril stating that if his arrival
should be delayed, the council need not on that account
be deferred, but should proceed with the necessary busi-
ness: and fifteen days having now elapsed beyond the
period fixed by the Emperor's letter for the assembling of
the council, St. Cyril and the rest of the bishops resolved
to hold the council on the 22d of June, 421, notwithstand-
ing a protest from Nestorius and sixty-eight bishops of
his party, who declared it to be incumbent upon them to
wait for John of Autioch, w^ho, though he held the catholic
faith, was, as we have before observed, friendly to Nes-
torius ; Nestorius had indeed come from Antioch, and
sentence of condemnation could hardly be passed upon
him without reflecting disgrace in some degree upon his
instructors. Candidian, also. Count of the Domestics, in-
terfered to prevent the opening of the council at the time
proposed, and went so far as to publish a protest against
their proceedings when assembled.

Nevertheless, on the day appointed, June 22, 431, the
third general council, the council of Ephesus, was opened.
St. Cyril presided in the right of the dignity of his see.

CYRIL. 385

There was, indeed, no one present to question his right ;
the patriarch of Antioch had not yet arrived, the patriarch
of Rome was not present, and the patriarch of Constanti-
nople was the part}^ arraigned. According to Balsamon,
Cyril, as " Pope of Alexandria," wore on this occasion a
golden diadem, such as Constantine had assigned to the
**Pope of Rome." Upon the episcopal throne of the
presiding bishop, which was in the centre of the apse, was
placed the New Testament to denote Christ's presence
among them : the other bishops were ranged in thrones
along the apse on each side of the president.

Nestorius, though summoned three times, refused to
attend, and being surrounded by troops supplied to him
by Candidian, he treated with contumely the bishops who
were sent from the council to summon him. The council
then proceeded to declare that the letter of St. Cyril to
Nestorius was conformable to theNicene doctrine and to the
doctrine they had received from their fathers. The letter of
Nestorius was read, the second which he wrote to St. Cyril;
and after several bishops had spoken declaring it to be
contrary to the Nicene doctrine, and accusing Nestorius
of introducing novelties, the other bishops all cried out
together, " Whosoever does not anatliematize Nestorius,
let him be anathema. The orthodox faith anathematizes
him, the holy council anathematizes him. Whoso com-
municates with Nestorius, let him be anathema. We all
anathematize the letter and doctrines of Nestorius. We
all anathematize the heretic Nestorius. Those who
communicate with Nestorius we all anathematize. We
anathematize the impious faith of Nestorius. All the
earth anathematizes his impious religion. Whosoever
does not anathematize him, let him be anathema."

Then, but not till then, the letter of Celestine, " Arch-
bishop of Rome" was read, and as his sentiments accorded
with those which had just been expressed by the council,
it was, with another of St. Cyril's, entered upon the
minutes, the name of Cyril appearing before that of Celes-

VOL. IV. 2 p

386 CYRIL.

tine. A letter was also entered upon the acts of the coun-
cil froro " another most revered metropolitan," Capreolus,
Bishop of Carthage, as it clearly asserted that the ancient
opinions concerning the faith ought to be maintained, and
the new to be rejected.

The depositions against Nestorius having been received
and his works having been examined, sentence of con-
demnation was pronounced against him in these terms :
" Nestorius having, among other things, refused to obej
our citation, and to receive the bishops who were sent on
our part, we have been obliged to proceed to an examinar
tion of his impieties ; and having convicted him, as well
by his letters as by his other writings, and by discourse*
which he lately held in this city, [duly attested,) of holding
and teaching impious doctrines ; being reduced to this
necessity by the canons, and by the letter of our most
holy father and colleague Celestine, Bishop of the Roman
Church ; after having shed many tears, we are agreed upon
this unhappy sentence. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom h&
hath blasphemed, has declared by this holy council that
he is deprived of the episcopal dignity, and excluded from
all ecclesiastical assemblies. Cyril, Bishop of i\.lexandria;
1 have subscribed to the judgment of the council. Juve-
nal, Bishop of Jerusalem, I have subscribed to tbe judg-
ment of the council." All the other bishops present sub-
scribed in the same way, to the number of one hundred
and ninety-eight Some called themselves bishops by the
grace anl mercy of God ; others, bishops of the Catholic
Church of such and such a place. Some subscribed by
the hand of a priest, one having his hand disabled, others
being sick. Some bishops also subscribed who were not
present till after the first session ; so that Nestorius was
deposed by more than two hundred bishops, for some of
them had a delegated authority as well as their own, since
they represented others who were unable to get to Ephesus.
This was the first session of the council, and it lasted
from morning till night, although the days were then at

CYRIL. 387

the longest, for it was the 22nd of June, and at Ephesus
the Sim does not set on that day till eleven minutes after
seven o'clock. The people of the city waited from morn-
ing till night in expectation of their decision ; and when
they heard that Nestorius was deposed, they began with
one voice to bless and applaud the council, and to praise
God that the enemy of the faith was fallen. The bishops,
on coming out of the church, were conducted to their
hotels with torches, the women carried perfumes before
them, the city was illuminated with lamps, and every
thing expressed universal exultation.

On the next day, (June the t went}'- third,) they ac-
quainted Nestorius with his sentence of deposition, in
these terms ; " The holy council assembled at Ephesus by
the grace of God, and in pursuance of the decree of our
most pious Emperors, to Nestorius the new Judas : know,
that for thy impious doctrines, and disobedience to the
canons, thou wast deposed by the holy council agreeably
to the laws of the Church, and declared to be excluded
from all ecclesiastical dignities, on the 22nd day of this
present month of June." This sentence was fixed up in
the public places, and published by criers. The council
wrote on the same day to Eucharius, defender of the
Church of Constantinople, to the priests, the stewards,
and the rest of the clergy, acquainting them that Nestorius
had been deposed on the previous day, and desiring them
to take care of the goods of the church, as they would give
an account of them to the future Bishop of Constantinoj^le,
"who will be ordained," says the letter, -'according to
the will of God, and the permission of our most pious
Emperors."

In the meantime Candidian, the Imperial Commis-
sioner, joined with Nestorius in sending a report to the
Emperor misrepresenting the acts of the council, and
annoyed the bishops by soldiers, preventing even the
necessaries of life from being brought to them, and per-
mitting the people whom Nestorius entertained, particu-

388 CYRIL.

larly a large body of the peasants belonging to the church
lands, to load tliem with insult.

When a fair copy had been made of the Acts of Nesto-
rius's deposition, they were sent to the Emperor together
with a synodical letter, giving a history of all that had
passed, their reasons for not waiting for the eastern
bishops, the contumacy of Nestorius, and so forth. The
pope is spoken of in these terms : " We approved of what
the most holy Bishop of Rome, Celestine, had done in
having already condemned the heretical dogmas of Nesto-
rius, and in anticipating us in passing sentence against
him." It concluded thus: "We beg, therefore, of your
majesty to command that Nestorius's doctrine be banished
from all our holy churches ; that his books, wherever they
are found, be burnt ; and if any one fail in due observance
of these commands, that he incur your imperial displea-
sure." The council likewise wrote to the clergy and peo-
ple of Constantinople, to acquaint them with the fact of
Nestorius's deposition, as a piece of agreeable news.

On the fifth day after the sentence of deposition, June
27th, John of Antioch arrived at Ephesus. Deputies
from the council waited upon him to shew him every mark
of respect, but these, though bishops, he suffered to be
maltreated by his soldiers ; their very lives were in danger.
The moment that he alighted from his chariot and got
into his room, covered with dust and not waiting even to
pull off his cloak, he commenced proceedings with Candi-
dian against St. Cyril, Memnon of Ephesus, and the whole
council. He afterwards, with the bishops who attended
him, held a synod and pronounced sentence of deposition
against Cyril and Memnon, excommunicating the bishops
who adhered to them. This sentence, however, they did
not venture to publish at Ephesus, but sent it to Constan-
tinople with letters to the Emperor and royal family replete
with calumnies against Cyril.

The Emperor who was all along prejudiced against Cyril,
the world being always opposed to the truth, sent a rescript
declaring the sentence of deposition against Nestorius to

CYRIL. 389

be null and void, and directing the bishops not to leave
Ephesus until he had sent some one to be associated with
Candidian, who might ascertain the true character of the
proceedings. This was on the 29th of June,

The council sent a respectful remonstrance to the Em-
peror. And their hands were strengthened by the arrival
at Ephesus of three persons sent to represent the western
churches by Celestine, Bishop of Kome. The Bishop of
Home had already authorized " the Pope of Alexandria" to
state the concurrence of the western church in the view
taken by St. Cyril, and this was now done more officially.
These persons arrived on the 10th of July. Celestiue did not
assume the airs of the modern papacy : his letter begins
thus : " The assembly of priests is the visible display of
the presence of the Holy Ghost ; [He who cannot lie has
said, ' Where two or three are gathered together in My
Name, I am in the midst of them ;' much more will He
be present in so large a crowd of holy men ;] for the coun-
cil is indeed holy in a peculiar sense, — it claims veneration
as the representative of that most noble synod of Apostles
[which we read of.] Their Master, Whom they were com-
manded to preach, never forsakes them ; it was He Wlio
taught them, it was He Who iostructed them what they
should teach others ; and He has assured the v,orld, that
in the person of His Apostles, they hear Him. This
charge of teaching has descended equally upon all bishops.
We are all engaged to it by an hereditary riglit ; all wt*
who, having come in their stead, preach the name of our
Lord to all the countries of the world, according to what
was said to them, ' Go ye and teach all nations.' You are
to observe, my brethren, that the order we have received
is a general order, and that He intended tliat we should
all execute it, when He charged them w^ith it as a duty,
devolving equally upon all We ought all to enter into
the labours of those whom we have all succeeded in
dignity."

Thus Celestine acknowledged that it was Chiist Him-
Up2

890 CYKIL.

self who established bishops, in the persons of the Apos-
tles, as the teachers of His Church : he places himself in
their rank, and declares that they ought all to concur
for the preservation of the sacred deposit of apostolical
doctrine. This is, in fact, the tendency of all the re-
mainder of the letter.

The delegates of Celestine by having signed the decree
in his name, made it the decree of the west as it had been
already of the east, and so it became the decree of the
whole Church. The council apprized the Emperor once
more of their proceedings, and desired to be liberated from
their labours. In their synodical letter they inform him
that the bishops of the west, as they could not all assemble
at Ephesus, had assembled in a synod of their own, Celes-
tine, Bishop of Rome, presiding, when they arrived at the
same decision with respect to the faith as the fathers of
Ephesus had done, being equally desirous to avenge the
injury done to Jesus Christ, and cutting off from the
priesthood those who differed from them. His represen-
tatives on their arrival, they continue " have made known
to us the opinion of the whole council of the west, and
have also witnessed, in writing, that they perfectly agree
with us in regard to the faith. We therefore inform your
majesty of this, that you may be assured that the sentence
we have now pronounced is the common judgment of the
whole world. Thus, since the business for which we as-
sembled is happily concluded, we beg your permission to
depart ; for some among us are oppressed with poverty,
others with diseases, and others sunk under the weight of
years, so that we are unable to endure the inconvenience
of staying longer in a foreign country, to which some of
the bishops and clergy have already fallen victims. The
whole world is unanimous, except the interested few who
prefer Nestorius s friendship to religion. It is but just,
therefore, that some one should be appointed to fill up his
place, and that we should be left in peace, to enjoy the
contirmation of the faith, and offer up our sincere prayers
on behalf of your majesty."

CYRIL. 391

This letter was subscribed bj St. C}'ril and all the other
bishops.

The council then having summoned John of Antioch,
who refused to obey, declared his acts against Cyril and
Memnon to be void, and pronounced sentence against him
and his associates. The council adds : " They shall not be
permitted to use the sacerdotal authority, to do good or
ill to any one till such time as they recollect themselves,
and confess their error: and they are to know, that
unless they do this speedily, they draw upon themselves
the extreme sentence [of the canons :] let them under-
stand too, that their uncanonical proceedings against
Cyril and Memnon are (as was yesterday declared) of no
force whatever, and that all that has passed shall be
reported to our most pious Emperors."

Juvenal of Jerusalem, the three deputies of Rome, and
all the other bishops, subscribed to this sentence : and
thus the fifth session ended.

The council wrote a letter to the Emperors, giving an
account of their acts. It says, that thirty bishops of
Nestorius's party, fearing the punishment due to their
crimes, had had the audacity to assemble apart, and
assume the title of council, being presided over by John
of Antioch, who was himself afraid of being called to
account for his delay. " They have pronounced," says
the letter, "a sentence of deposition against Cyril the
president of the council, and against Memnon ; no
canonical order being observed, no accusation, citation,
or examination of evidence being made. Such temerity
would have only met with our contempt, had they not
gone so far as to report it to your majesty. We have
now proceeded, in accordance with the canons, to receive
the complaints of Cyril and Memnon. We have sum-
moned John of Antioch three several times, but as his
house was surrounded with soldiers and other people in
arms, he would neither admit those who were sent by
the council, nor deign to give them an answer. We
have therefore annulled all the proceedings against Cyril

392 CYRIL.

and Memnon, and excommunicated these rebels, till such
time as they appear before the council to defend their
acts.

" We have thought it our duty to write thus much,
that you might not misconceive what is in reality only a
party of criminals to be a council. At the great council of
Nice, some bishops separated themselves in a similar
way from fear of being punished, but the great and holy
Emperor Constantine, so far from taking them to be the
council, punished them for their schism. In fact, what
can be more absurd than for thirty bishops to oppose
themselves to a council of two hundred and ten, with
whom all the bishops of the West, and through them
the bishops of the whole world, are consentient? Be-
sides, of these thirty, some have been long ago deposed,
some have embraced the errors of Celestius, and others
are anathematized for maintaining those of Nestorius.
Ordain, therefore, that the decree which the oecumenical
council has passed against Nestorius s impiety remain
in full force, receiving from your approval still farther
sanction."

The Emperor sent John, Count of the Largesses, or
Grand Treasurer, to Ephesus, armed with a discretionary
power of making such arrangements as the state of the
case might demand.

Count John thought proper to consider Cyril and Mem-
non, as well as Nestorius, deposed, and placed Cyril, as
well as the others, under arrest. The council, of course,
remonstrated in a letter to the Emperor, praying him to
confirm their decision with respect to the deposition of
Nestorius, who had been convicted of heresy, and to restore
Cyril and Memnon, who had only been condemned by an
heretical assembly.

So great was the persecution to which the council was
at this time exposed, that they could only send their letter
to the Emperor, and communicate with their friends,
through the instrumentality of a beggar, who concealed
their letters in a cane. When the state of affairs at Ephe-

CYRIL. 393

sus was known, especially the arrest of the presidents of
the council, Cyril and Memnon, the excitement was so
great, and public opinion in favour of orthodoxy so strong,
that the Emperor thought it expedient to banish Nestorius
to the monastery of St. Euprepius, where he had been
educated in his youth ; and at the same time he sum-
moned deputations from the council, and from the party
of John of Antioch, to meet him at Chalcedon. The result
of the five conferences which the Emperor Theodosius
held with these parties, is given in the following letter
addressed by the Emperor to the fathers of the council of
Ephesus : "As we have nothing so near our heart as the
peace of the Churches, we have endeavoured to restore
harmony between you, not only by means of our oflBcers,
but in our own person. But since it is impossible to
effect a re-union, and since you have refused to hold any
discussion on the controverted points, we have ordered
that the bishops of the east return home to their churches,
and that the council of Ephesus be dissolved. Moreover,
St. Cyril shall go to Alexandria, and Memnon shall con-
tinue at Ephesus. We delare to you, however, that so
long as we live, we cannot condemn the easterns, for in
no respect have they been convicted of error before us, no
one being willing to enter into debate with them. If^
therefore, you sincerely aim at peace, acquaint us with
such your intention ; if not, think of retiring without
delay. We are not responsible for this result ; with whom
the responsibility rests God knows." It is evident from
this letter of the Emperor as well as from that of the
schismatics, that the Catholic deputies had not been wil-
ling to dispute with them before the Emperor, as if the
doctrine were in any degree doubtful, but contented them-
selves with defending the acts of the council, and shewing
that the deposition of Nestorius was just and canonical, as
that of Cyril and Memnon was untenable and unwar-
ranted.

Such was the termination of the council of Ephesus.
St. Cyril arrived in triumph at Alexandria, and was

394 CYRIL.

received there with great rejoicings, on the 30th of
October.

The attention of the Emperor and his government was
now directed to effect a reconcihation between the two
patriarchs, St. Cjril, and John of Antioch. The latter
had a meeting with his friends whom he summoned to
Antioch ; and through Acacius of Berrhsea, pi-oposed to
St. Cyril that he shonld condemn all that he had written
previous to the council of Ephesus. The answer of St.
Cyril set forth that the easterns, when they proposed that
he should condemn all that he had written previously to.
the council of Ephesus, demanded what was plainly im-
possible. " That the Nicene Creed is sufficient," he says,
" I admit, but what I have written is only in opposition to
the new errors of Nestorius ; if I should now retract this,
it would follow that he has been in the right, and that we^
were therefore wrong in condemning and deposing him.
You see, then, that far from desiring peace they throw^ us
back upon the original cause of division. Why did they
not rather join with us on their arrival at Ephesus in
condemning Nestorius ? Suppose they did come a little
too late, yet what hindered them from looking over the
acts, and approving what had been decided by the rest ?
If peradventure we erred on some point, was it therefore
necessary that they should disdain even to speak to us?
We had suffered the blasphemies of Nestorius three years
long, and during all this time used our endeavours (as you
also did) to bring him back to the truth. At length the
council, seeing that he persisted at Ephesus i,n the same
course, and that he was past remedy obstinate and impeni-
tent, deprived him of the priesthood. But the council at
the same time confirmed the Nicene Creed ; [for this was
the very ground of their sentence against him, that he
would not teach according to this creed, but sought to
obliterate its doctrines by familiarizing men's ears with
statements foreign to the teaching of the Church.] For
my part, whatever outrages I have suffered, I am ready for
the love of God, and from respect to the Emperor who

CYRIL. 395

desires it, and for the good of the Church, to forget all
and forgive all as to brethren. But it is also the will of
God and of the Emperor to sanction the sentence passed
upon Nestorius, and to anathematize his blasphemies.
Nothing beyond this is required to restore peace among
the Churches.

" As some inconsiderate men accuse me of holding the
errors of Apollinarius, Arius, or Eunomius ; I declare,
that by the grace of our Saviour, I have j^been always
orthodox ; I anathemize Apollinarius, and all other here-
tics ; I confess that the body of Jesus Christ is animated
by a reasonable soul, and this without commixture : and
that the Divine Word is in His own nature immutable,
and impassible. But I affirm that one and the same
Christ and Lord, the only begotten Son of God Himself
suffered for us in tlie flesh, as saith St Peter As to the
twelve articles, they relate only to the dogmas of Nestorius,
and vvhen peace shall have been restored to the Churches,
and we can write freely, and with brotherly confidence to
each other, it will be easy to satisfy every body as to these
articles ; for our doctrine and conduct is approved by all
the bishops throughout the Roman empire, and we ought
to take care to maintain peace with them. I may add
that the Tribune Aristolaus has so far soothed the minds
of the clergy at Alexandria, and of all the Egyptian bishops,
who were sorely grieved at what the easterns have done
against me, that 1 find the way towards an accommodation
very much smoothed." Such was St. Cyril's answer to
x'^cacius of Berrhaia.

St. Cyrils letter was variously received by the easterns.
Acacius of Berrhsea and John of Aniioch were satisfied
with it. Tliey found it in no way contradictory to the
Catholic doctrine ; they thought that the two natures of
Christ were acknowledged with sufficient distinctness ;
and they believed it their duty to receive the rest with a
favoujable construction.

But John of xlntioch did not find all his partizans wil-
ling" to aciiuiosce in his proposal, though he succeeded in

396 CYRIL.

persuading all but Alexander of Hierapolis to agree that
Paul, Bishop of Emesa, should be requested to go to
Egypt, and to confer with Cyril, as affairs of such a nature
are more easily discussed in the conversation than by
writing. Paul of Emesa was obliged to wait some time
after his arrival at Alexandria, as he found St. Cyril con-
fined by a violent attack of sickness. St. Cyril afterwards
had many long conversations with him on the subject of
the proceedings against him at Ephesus ; but willing to
forget the past, and proceed to matters of greater impor-
tance, he asked him whether he brought any letter from
John of Antioch. Paul delivered one to him, in which
John said, " I had always previously maintained a special
affection for you, and that even without having seen you,
but those articles were the cause of our estrangement. I
could not at first believe them to be yours, so widely dis-
crepant were they from the doctrine of the Church. These
you have already, in a great measure, corrected ; and you
have raised in us great hopes for the future by your letter
to Acacius, which gladdened the hearts of all w^ho love the
peace of the Church. [We shall look forward to the fulfil-
ment of the promise you made that] as soon as peace is
restored, we shall come to a better understanding What
most rejoices us, is that you received favourably the letter
of our common father, the blessed Athanasius, which is of
itself sufficient to terminate all our differences." He then
exhorts St. Cyril to join him in labouring for peace, that a
stop might be put to the mutual anathematizing and per-
secution of the bishops, the division of the people, and the
insulting scoffs of the Jews and pagans. In conclusion,
he commends to him Paul of Emesa, desiring that he
would speak to him with no less confidence than he would
to himself.

St. Cyril was not satisfied with this letter of John of
Antioch ; the reproaches it contained were more adapted,
he thought, to exasperate than to appease him ; so that
although it was a letter of communion, he would not
receive it, and said, "What? Will they who ought to ask

CYRIL. 397

pardon for the past, give us fresh offence ? I rather ex-
pected some consolation." Paul of Emesa assured him
on his oath, that they had not intended to give him any
offence, but that John had thus written to him out of pure
simplicity and zeal for the true doctrine. St. Cyril was
willing to make use of a charitable dissimulation and to
receive this excuse ; but before he would suffer Paul to
attend prayers in the church, he obliged him to give his
declaration in writing that he renounced the schism. It
was drawn up in the form of a letter to St. Cyril, though
it addresses him as present. It states that in pursuance
of the Emperor's order, John of Antioch, and Acacius of
Berrhaea, had sent him to St. Cyril ; that he had found
him disposed to peace, and had received from him a
writing, in which the Catholic faith was set down in all
its purity ; " This," he says, " was the point of greatest
importance. And because it is necessary that what relates
to Nestorius should also be settled, I declare that we
receive the ordination of the most holy Bishop Maximian ;
that we look upon Nestorius, late Bishop of Constantinople,
as deposed ; that we anathematize the impieties he has
taught, and that we sincerely embrace your communion,
according to the exposition which we have given you of
our views respecting the Incarnation of the "Word, which
exposition you have received as embodying your own
faith, and a copy of which is inserted in this paper. By
this a'3t of conjmunion we put an end to the troubles
which may have originated with either party, and restore
the Churches to their former tranquillity." The exposition
of faith is not found inserted in this declaration, but it
must be the same with that which was afterwards inserted
in the letter of John of Antioch.

Having made this declaration, Paul was admitted to the
Church-prayers, and took his place as bishop in the great
church of Alexandria, where he preached a sermon to the
people, in the presence of St. Cyril, on Christmas-day,
December the twenty-fifth (in the Egyptian calendar, the

VOL. IV. 2o

B98 CYRIL.

twenty-ninth of Choiak) of the same year, 432. He began
by proclaiming " peace on earth," with the angels ; and
then, entering upon the mystery which we commemorate
on that day, he said plainly, " Mary, Mother of God,
brought forth Emmanuel." The people, when they heard
it, cried out, " Behold this is the faith : it is God s gift,
O orthodox Cyril ! this is what we wished to hear. He
that speaks not thus, let him be anathema." Paul of
Emesa proceeded ; " Whosoever says not or thinks not
thus, let him be anathema, and cut off from the Church :"
then resuming the thread of his discourse, and proceeding
to explain the mystery of the incarnation, he says ; " For-
asmuch as the concurrence of the two perfect natures, I
mean the Divinity and the humanity, has formed the one
only Son, the one only Christ, the one only Lord." At
these words, the people again interrupted him with shouts
of, " You are welcome, 0 orthodox bishop, worthy of
Cyril, gift of God !" Paul concluded his sermon in a few
Words, expressly anathematizing those who spoke of two
Sons, or said that Emmanuel was a mere man ; and ex-
tolling the confession made by St. Peter, when he acknow-
ledged one only Son of the living God. He then broke
off, to allow St. Cyril to deliver the address usual in such
cases.

Paul of Emesa, not having had time enough to explain
himself fully on that day, preached a second time in the
great church of Alexandria, eight days afterwards ; that is,
on the sixth of Tihi, or first of January, ad. 433. In
this sermon, which is longer than the former, he carefully
unfolds the mystery of the incarnation in opposition to
the errors of Nestorius and Apollinarius. The people
twice interrupted him (as before) witVi applause and accla-
mation ; and St. Cyril added a few words on the same
subject.

It was Paul's wish that in making the declaration in
writing as he had done, he should be considered to repre-
sent in his own person both John of Antioch and all

CYRIL. 399

the eastern bishops ; and that nothing further therefore
should be required of them. In this he was overruled by
St. Cyril, who maintained that the declaration could serve
only for himself, and peremptorily insisted that John of
Autioch should likewise give his declaration in writing.
St. Cyril remained inflexible also on the subject of the
four deposed bishops, whose restoration Paul had at first
stated to be indispensable. (They were Helladius of
Tarsus, Eutherius of Tyana, Himerius of Nicomedia, and
Dorotheus of Marcianopolis.) St. Cyril declared that he
could never give his assent to any such act, nor were they
eventually included in the peace.

St. Cyril and Paul of Emesa drew up in concert the
declaration that John of Antioch was to sign. Two of
St. Cyril's clergy were appointed to carry it, along with a
letter of communion for him ; but he was not to receive the
latter until he had sign^id the declaration. The two clerks
accompanied the Tribune Aristolaus, who returned to
An'ioch murmuring at the tedious character of the nego-
tiation. He promised St. Cyril on oath, that the purpose
which the declaration was intended to serve, should not
be frustrated ; " And if Bishop John," he added, " refuses
to subscribe it, I will proceed immediately to Constanti-
nople, and tell the Emperor that it is no fault of the
Church of Alexandria if peace be not made, but of the
Bishop of Antioch only." The declaration contained an
approval of Nestorius's deposition, and a condemnation of
his tenets.

John of Antioch at length submitted. He wrote a
letter to St. Cyril, in which he says that for the good of
the Church, and in obedience to the Emperor's orders, he
has commissioned Paul of Emesa to conclude a peace, and
to deliver in his name the exposition of faith which they
had agreed upon, in these terms : "As to the Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, and the mode of the incarnation,
we are obliged to say what we think of them, — not as if
-we would add any thing whatsoever to the Nicene Creed,
or pretend to explain mysteries which are ineffable, but to

400 CYRIL.

stop the mouths of those who wish to attack us. We
declare, then, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son
of God ; perfect God. and perfect man, composed of a
reasonable soul and a body ; in respect of His Godhead,
'begotten of the Father before all w^orlds,' and the same,
according to the humanity, born in these latter days, for
our salvation, of the Virgin Mary ; in respect of His God-
head, consubstantial with the Father, and the same con-
substantial with us, according to the humanity ; for the
two natures have been united : and therefore we confess
one Christ, one Son, one Lord. In consistence with the
notion of this union without confusion, we confess that
the holy Virgin is Mother of God, because God the Word
was incarnate and made man, and, from the very act of
conception, united to Himself the temple which He took
from her. As to the expressions concerning our Lord in
the Evangelists and Apostles, we know that divines apply
sotne of them in common, as to one person, and others
separately, as to two natures ; teaching that such as are
worthy of God relate to the Divinity of Christ, and those
of a meaner kind to His humanity.

'* Having received this confession of faith, we have agreed,
in order to procure universal peace and remove all grounds
of offence fmm the Church, to look upon Nestorius, late
Bishop of Constantinople, as deposed ; and we anathema-
tize the evil and profane novelties of words introduced by
him ; for our Churches preserve the sound and right faith
no less than your holiness does. We also approve the
ordination of the most holy Bishop Maximian to the
Church of Constantinople, and we are in communion with
all the bishops in the world, who hold and preach the
pure and orthodox faith."

Peace having been thus made, St. Cyril declared the
joyful news to his people, in a short sermon preached on
the twenty-eighth of Pharraouthi in the first indiction,
that is, April the twenty-third, a. d. 433. He then ordered
the letter of John of Antioch to be read in the church,
along with his own answer, which he sent by Paul of

CYRIL. 401

Emesa. This, in addition to various expressions of joy
and avowals of friendship, contained the declaration of
John of Antioch, and some doctrinal explanations, which
St. Cyril made in order to remove the scruples of the
easterns. " I am accused," he says, " of afiBrming that
Christ's sacred body was not taken from the Holy Virgin,
but brought from heaven. How can they have brought
themselves to imagine this, when almost the whole of our
dispute turned on my maintaining that she is Mother of
God ? How could she be this, or whom could she have
brought forth, if the body had come from heaven ? But
uhen we say that Christ came down from heaven, we
follow St. Paul, who says, ' The first man was of the earth,
earthy; the second Man was from heaven:' and our
Saviour Himself says, ' No man hath ascended up to
heaven, but He Who came down from heaven, even the
Son of Man.' For although it be properly the Word Who
came down from heaven, yet by virtue of the unity of
person we may attribute the same to the man."

As to the other reproach that he admitted a commixture
or confusion of the Word with the flesh, he says, " So far
am I from holding any such opinion, that I believe a man
must have lost his senses before he can suppose the
Divine Word subject to even the least semblance of change.
He ever abides what He is, incapable of alteration. We
all acknowledge, too, that He is impassible, although He
ascribes to Himself the sufferings incidental to the flesh,
even as St. Peter so wisely said, ' Christ having suffered
in the flesh,' not in His Divinity." He further declares,
that he in all things follows the doctrine of the fathers,
especially of St. Athanasius, and embraces the creed of
Nicsea, not allowing a syllable of it to be altered, knowing
that it was not the fathers who spake it, but the very
Spirit of God, He concludes thus : " Having learnt that
some have corrupted the letter of our father Athanasius to
Epictetus, to the hurt of many souls, we deem it our duty
to send you a copy of it taken from the manuscripts pre-
served in our archives."

2o 2

403 CYRIL.

Tlie fact was, that Paul of Emesa, wben conversing
with St. Cyril on the faith, asked him very seriously, if he
agreed with what St. Athanasius had written to Epictetus.
" Have you the letter," answered St. Cyril, "in its genuine
form ? — for many things in it have been altered by the
enemies of the truth : — if you have, then I entirely agree
with it in every respect." " I have the letter," said Paul,
"and I should he glad to ascertain fully, from the copies
you possess, whether it has been falsified or not." The
old copies were therefore put into his hand. After collat-
ing them with his own copy, he was satisfied that the
latter was corrupt ; and urged St. Cyril to get a transcript
of the Alexandrine copies made and sent to Antioch, which
was accordingly done.

Some of St. Cyrils friends feared that he had made
concessions as to the faith, but he vindicated himself in a
letter he wrote to Successus, Bishop of Diocaesarea, in
Isauria. Successus had inquired of him whether it was
proper to say there are two natures in Christ. He first of
all lays it down in opposition to Nestorius, that Christ is
one and the same, before and after His incarnation ; he
then adds, that this union proceeds from the concurrence
of the two natures ; that after this union we never divide
them, but say with the fathers, * the one incarnate nature
of God the Word,' which he explains presently after, by
saying, that there are two natures united, but that Christ
is one. By w.ay of example he mentions our human
nature, each particular man being personally one, though
compounded of soul and body, so different in their
natures. He then replies to another question, — how
Christ's body became Divine after His resurrection, —
" not," he says, " by changing its nature, but by being
freed from human infirmities." Successus having sent
him some objections to this explanation, he replied in a
second, still larger letter, the object of which is to prove
that when he says ' one nature,' he does not admit of any
confusion or mixture, since the Divine nature is immut-
able, and the human nature remains entire in Christ ;

CYRIL. 403

for it is not one nature simply, but one incarnate nature.
He remarks that there are three sorts of expression em-
ployed by Scripture in reference to our Lord ; some apply
to the divine nature only, others to the human only, and
others to both taken together. The object of these two
letters, as well as of the preceding, was to justify St. Cyril
on the subject of his re-union with the Easterns.

Although the edict against Nestorius was received by all
the Bishops of the East, yet St. Cyril was informed that
some of them pretended that they were under no obligation
to do more than what was expressly contained in the
Emperors letter, and so condemned Nestorius only in
words. He therefore wTote to Aristoiaus, saying that if it
was their object to produce a bond fide conformity, it would
be necessary that the bishops, besides anathematizing
Nestorius and his doctrine, should also declare that
" there is but one only Jesus Christ, Son of God, the same
begotten of God before all time and conceived by a woman
in these last times according to the flesh ; in such sort
that He is one single person," as he further explains in
his letter. He sent the same formula to John of Antioch,
as necessary to provide against all chicane. " I have
learnt," he says, " that there are some bishops in your
parts of the world who, while they anathematize Nest'irius
and his tenets, constantly set themselves to support them
on other grounds. They affirm that he was only con-
demned because he refused to admit that one expression,
' Mother of God.'" He complains in especial of Theodoret.
" I did believe," he says to John of Antioch, " that having
written to me, and received letters from me, he had sin-
cerely embraced the peace ; meanwhile, 1 am told by
priest Daniel that he has neither anathematized the blas-
phemies of Nestorius, nor subscribed to his sentence."
John of Antioch wrote to Proclus, informing him of the
results of the second mission of Aristoiaus, who probably
conveyed his letter. "All the Bishops of the East," he
writes, " and indeed those of all the rest of the world,
have given in their verdict, and passed sentence upon the

404 CYRIL.

error of Nestorius, and have consented to his deposition.
We are all unanimous in thinking that nothing should be
either added to, or taken away from, the Nicene Creed.
We understand it in the same way as the holy bishops
our predecessors ; in the West, Damasus, Innocent, and
Ambrose ; in Greece and Illyricum, Methodius ; in Africa,
Cyprian ; at Alexandria, Alexander, Athanasius, and
Theophilus ; at Constantinople, Nectarius, John, and
Atticus ; in Pontus, Basil and Gregory ; in Asia, Amphi-
lochius and Optimus ; in the East, Eustathius, Meletius,
and Flavian." Then, after inserting the Nicene Creed,
he adds : " We send you this to satisfy those who yet
require to be satisfied ; as for us we said and did all that
was necessary four years ago, on the return of the blessed
Paul ;" i. e. Paul of Emesa ; whence, by the way, it appears
that this letter was written in 437 ; " but I know not
whence it comes that these vexations seem still to return
upon us and all our churches. All the bishops of the
sea-coast have consented and subscribed ; they of the
second Phoenicia, and both the Cicilias a year ago ; the
Arabians by Antiochus their metroj^olitan ; Mesopotamia,
Osroene, Euphratesia, and the second Syria, have approved
all we have done ; you have long since received the answer
of the Isaurians, and all in the first Syria subscribed with
us. The Tribune Aristolaus will inform you in what man-
ner our clergy received this, and how they applauded your
care. Henceforth, then, let all this tumult cease, that we
may take breath after the evils we have suffered on account
of the accursed Nestorius, and be at length able to make
head against the pagans of Phceuicia, Palestine, and
Arabia ; the Jews, particularly those of Laodicea ; and the
insubordinate Nestorians of Cilicia."

The remainder of Cyrils life was passed in an honest
endeavour to preserve the peace without compromising the
truth.

He wrote with his usual power upon other subjects,
although we have directed our attention to that great con-
troversy with which his name is for ever associated. He

DAILLE. 405

did not any more than any among his contemporaries,
hold the Romish error of transiibstantiation ; and, in the
Homily of the Mystical Supper he brings the true doctrine to
bear against the Nestorians thus : " Let them tell us what
body it is which is food to the flocks of the Church, and
what the streams by which they are refreshed? If it is
the body of a God, then is Christ truly God, and not a
mere man. If it is the blood of a God, then is the Son of
God not only God, but the Word incarnate. If it is the
flesh of Christ which is meat, and His blood which is
drink — that is, according to them, the flesh and blood of a
mere man — how is it we teach that it avails to eternal
life? Whence comes it that though distributed here and
every where it suffers no dimunition? A mere body is
not the source of life to those who receive it." And in
his commentary on St. John he says ; " by receiving the
Eucharist our flesh is united to that of Christ, as two
pieces of wax melted together, to the end that by this
union we might become one with the Divine Person of
Him Who took flesh, and that the Person of the Word
might unite us to the Father, with Whom He is consub-
stantial ;" so that by these three mysteries of the Trinity,
the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, we are raised to an
intimate union with God.

Cyril died in the year 444, having governed the Church
of Alexandria thirty-two years. Of his numerous works,
which have been often printed, either entire or in detached
treatises, the best collection is that published at Paris, in
Greek and Latin, 1638, 7 vols, folio, under the superin-
tendence of John Aubert, canon of Laon. Spanheim's
edition contains Cyprian's work against Julian. — Cyril's
Works. Fleury. Cave.

Cyril Lucar. — See Lucar.

-DAILLE, JOHN.

John Daille was born at Chattelerant in 1594. He
studied protestant theology at Saumur in 1612, and

406 DAMASCENE.

was admitted into the family of Monsieur de Plessis
Mornay, as tutor to his grandsons. He was appointed
minister of a congregation in Saumur in the year 1625,
and here he spent the rest of his life. In 1628 he wrote
his work D T usage des Peres, on the use of the fathers,
which was not published, however, till 1631. In the last
century, when, according to Bishop Warburton, " a sove-
reign contempt for the authority of the fathers, and no
great reverence for any other, is what now-a-days consti-
tutes a protestant in fashion," this work was in high
esteem. It has now, in a better age, fallen into disrepute.

In 1633 Daille published An Apology for the lleformed
Churches, vindicating them from the charge of schism.
Such a work by a person of Mr. Daille"s principles must
have strengthened the cause of Romanism.

He took part in the controversy which raged among the
foreign protestants concerning universal grace ; his opinion
was decidedly declared in favour of that doctrine. After a
long life chiefly engaged in controversy, he died at Paris
in 1670. — General Blog. Diet. Warburton.

DAMASCENE, JOHN.

John Damascene was born at Damascus, when, in the
eighth century, that place v\as under the power of the
Mahometans. Born of a noble family, he was made by
the Caliph, Governor of Damascus, and loaded with
honours, but sensible of the spiritual dangers by which
he was surrounded, he disposed of his estates and gave
the money to the Church, retiring to the great Laura of
St. Sebas, near Jerusalem. Tlie discipline to which he
was subjected by the superior of the Laura was very severe,
and one would be inclined to say capricious. He felt
that he had in Damascene to subdue a spirit prone to
vanity and pride ; and he gave him the following short
lessons : that he should never do his own will, but study
in all things to die to himself in order to divest himself

DAMASCENE. 407

of all inordinate self-love or attachment to creatures.
Secondly, that he should frequently offer to God all his
actions, difficulties and prayers. Thirdly, that he should
take no pride in his learning or any other advantage, but
ground himself in a sincere and thorough conviction that
he had nothing of his own stock but ignorance and weak-
ness. Fourthly, that he should renounce all vanity,
should always mistrust himself and his own lights, and
never desire visions, or the like extraordinary favours.
Fifthly, that he should banish from his mind all thoughts
of the world, nor ever disclose to strangers the instructions
given him in the monastery ; that he should keep strict
silence, and remember that there may be harm even in
saying good things without necessity. By the punctual
observance of these rules, the fervent novice made great
j;rogress in an interior life and Christian perfection. His
director, to promote his spiritual advancement, often put
his virtue to severe trials. He once sent him to Damascus
to sell some baskets, and having set an exorbitant jDrice
on them, forbad him to take less. The saint obeyed his
director without the least demur, and appeared poor and
ill clad in that great city, in which he had formerly lived
in splendour. On being asked the price of his ware, he
was abused and insulted for the unreasonableness of his
demands. At length one that had been formerly his
servant, out of compassion purchased his whole stock
at the price he asked ; and he returned to his superior
victorious over vanity and pride. It happened that a
certain monk being inconsolable for the death of his bro-
ther, Damascene, by way of comforting him, recited to him
a Greek verse, importing, that all is vanity which time
destroyeth. His director, for his greater security against
the temptation of vanity, or ostentation on account of
learning, called this a disobedience in speaking without
necessity, and by way of chastisement turned him out of
his cell. The humble saiut wept bitterly to heal this
wound of disobedience in his soul, as he confessed it to
be ; and without endeavouring to extenuate the fault,

408 DAMASCENE.

though in itself so excusable, begged the monks to inter-
cede for him to his director for pardon. This was at
length obtained, but only on condition that with his own
hands he should cleanse and carry away all the filth
that lay about the monastery : which condition he, to
whom humiliations were always welcome, most cheerfully
complied with.

When he was considered sufficiently humbled, he
was ordained priest, and became one of the first writers
of the age. That age was disturbed by the Iconoclast
controversy.

Leo the Third, Emperor of the East, commanded
images to be removed out of the churches in 730, having
been for some time opposed to the use of them. For this
conduct he was condemned by the Popes of Rome. But
he persevered, and was followed in the course he had
adopted by his successor, Constantine Copronymus, who
assembled the synod of Constantinople, in 754, to suppresis
the use of images.

In this controversy Damascene wrote in favour of the
images, and was by the council condemned.

In the synod of Constantinople the bread of the Eu-
charist is called the image of Christ, being the true and
sole image of Himself which He left by the sanctification
of the substance of bread. On the other hand the fathers
of the second Nicene Council, together with John Damas-
cene, denied this position, and asserted that the bread was
the proper Body of Christ, r^ot by transubstantiation, but
in some undefined and unknown manner. This doctrine
of transubstantiation was not in fact developed till the
middle of the next century, when Pascasius Radbert first
reduced the fluctuating expressions concerning this great
mystery to a regular theory of transubstantiation : a
theory which was rejected by some of the first divines
of the day.

Though the philosophy of Plato had been chiefly in
vogue. Damascene adopted that of Aristotle ; and thus he
is regarded as the precursor in the East of that theological

DANDINI. 40.)

system called the scholastic. On this principle he wrote
his " Exposition of the Orthodox Faith ;" which forms a
Body of Divinity. He perceived that he could only hope
to combat with success the learned Saracens by enlisting
philosophy on the side of God. Of the schoolmen we
ought to say, not so much that they philosophized Chris-
tianicy, as that they baptized philosophy.

He chiefly continued to reside at the Laura of St. Sebas,
in Palestine, — and was one of those holy men, who,
though devoted to learning, would never permit his studies
to encroach upon his hours of prayer and contemplation.-
-" Without assiduous prayer," says Fenelon, " reasoning
is a great dissipation of the mind ; and learning often
extinguishes the humble interior spirit of prayer, as wind
does a candle."

He died, according to some, in 754 ; according to others,
in 780. His numerous philosophical and theological
works place him among the most distinguished writers of
the Eastern Church in the eighth century. His principal
work is an Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, or Christian
Doctrines, in four books. This work attained great repu-
tation in the Greek Church, and the author was styled
Chrysorrhoas, or Golden-flowing, on account of his elo-
quence. He wrote also treatises against the Manichaeans
and Nestorians. His principal works have been published
by Lequien, Opera J. Damasceni, Paris and Venice, 1748,
"2 vols, folio. — Dupin. Butler. Palmer on the Church.
Spanheim. Guisler.

DANDINI, JEROME.

Jerome Dandini was born at Cesena, in 1554. Becom-
ing a Jesuit he taught philosophy at Paiis, and divinity
at Padua ; he was rector of the colleges of Ferrara, Forli,
Bologna, Parma, and Milan ; visitor in the provinces of
Venice, Toulouse, and Guicnne : and provincial ni PoIukJ

VOL. lY. U R

41(7 DANEAU.

aad in the Milanese. In the year 1596 Clement VIIX,
appointed him his nuncio to the Maronites, inhabiting
Libanus and Antilibanus. An account of his travels was
published at Cesena, entitled Missione Apostolica al
Patriarca e Maroniti del Monte Libano ; of which Simon
published a French translation at Paris, in 1675. Dan-
dini died in 1634. He was the author of Commentaries
on the Three Books of Aristotle de Anima, Paris, 1611,
folio ; and of a treatise on morals, entitled Ethica Sacra,
hoc est de Virtutibus et Vitiis, Cesena, 1651, folio. —
Moreri.

DANEAU, or DANGEUS.

Daneau was born in 1530, at Orleans. He was a law
pupil of Aune du Bourg, who^ in 1559, was strangled, or
burnt at Paris, as a Huguenot. The persecution of a
good man, and the constancy with which he suffered, had
the usual effect on Daneau; he adopted the religious
principles of his master, and retired, in 1560, to Geneva,
where he became minister, and professor of theology;
which ofiBce he afterwards sustained with much reputation
at Leyden, whence he went to Ghent, and then to Bern.
In 1594 he was invited to Castres, in Languedoc, where
he died about two years after. He published Commenta-
ries on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark ; Loci Com-
munes ; Harmonia, sive Tabulae in Salomonis Proverbia
et Ecclesiasten ; Geographiae Poeticse, Lib. IV. ; Vetus-
tissimarum Mundi Antiquitatum, Lib- IV. ; Elenchus
Hereticorum ; Methodus sacrae Scripturse : and Aphorismi
Politici et Militares. Primi Mundi antiquitatum Sectiones
quatuor, was published in English, by Thomas Twine,
under the title of The Wonderful Workmanship of the
World, 1578, 4to. His Les Sorciers was also published
here in 1 564, under the title, A Dialogue of Witches. —
Moreri. B'log. U)(iverseUe.

DANTZ. ill

DANTZ, OR DANS, JOHN ANDREW.

John Andrew Dantz was born February 1, 1654, at
Sandhusen, a village near Gotha. He became a celebrated
theologian among the Lutherans. After studying Hebrew
at Hamburgh, under Esdras Edzardi and other learned
Jews, he went to Leipsic, and thence to Jena ; where he
was appointed professor of the oriental languages on the
death of the learned Frischmuth. Some time after he
was appointed professor of divinity. He died in 1727.
He wrote, among many other works, Sinceritas Sacrae
Scripturfe Veteris Testamenti triumphans, cujus prodro-
mus Sinceritas Scripturaa Vet. Test, prevalente Keri
vacillans, Jena, 1713, 4to ; and Divina Elohim inter
coaequales de primo Homine condendo Deliberatio, 1712 :
Inauguratio Christi baud obscurior Mosaica, decern Dissert,
asserta, Jena, 1717, 4to; and Davidas in Ammonitas de-
victos mitigata Crudelitas, 1713. — Moreri.

DAUBENTON, WILLIAM.

William Daubenton was born at Auxerre, in 1648,
and after performing his noviciate he became a member
of the society of Jesuits at Nancy, in 1683. He was at
first distinguished as a preacher. The state of his health,
however, obliging him to relinquish pulpit exercises, he
was appointed to the rectory of the college of Strasburg.
By Louis XIV. he was made confessor to his grandson,
Philip v., King of Spain, whom he accompanied when he
went to take possession of his throne, and over whom
he appears to have exercised considerable influence. His
intriguing spirit caused his dismission ; upon which he
retired to France, in 1706, whence he was sent to Rome.
In 1716 he was recalled to Madrid, and reinstated in his
office of confessor to Philip V. Some years afterwards,
when Philip had formed, but not divulged, his resolution
to abdicate his crown, Daubenton conceived that measure
to be so unfavourable to the interests of his native country,

•412 DAVENPORT.

that he opposed it with all his weight, and betrayed the
secret to the Duke of Orleans, which terminated in his
disgrace a second tirae. He died in 1723. His works
consist chiefly of funeral sermons, and a Life of St. Francis
Regis, Paris, 1716, 4to. — Moreri.

DAUBUZ, CHARLES.

Of this learned writer little is known. He was born
about 1670, in France, and came to England on the revo-
cation of the edict of Nantes. He is said to have become
vicar of Brotherton, in Cheshire. He wrote, Pro Testi-
monio Josephi de Jesu Christo, contra Tan. Fabrum et
alios, Loudon, 1700, 8vo; and a Commentary on the
Revelation of St. John, 1712, folio. This was, in 1730,
published by Peter Lancaster, vicar of Bowden, in
Cheshire, under the title of A Perpetual Commentary,
&c., newly modelled, abridged, and rendered plain to the
meanest capacities. Daubuz is supposed to have died in
1740. — General Biorj. Diet.

DAVENANT, JOHN.

John Dayenant was born in 1576, in Watling street,
London. His father was a merchant and a man of
wealth. He was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge,
of which he became fellow in 1597. He took his degree
of D.D. 1609, and the same year was elected lady Mar-
garet's divinity professor, which he held till 1621, and in
1614 he was chosen master of his college. His learning
recommended him to James I., who sent him with other
eminent divines to the synod of Dort in 1618, fSee Life
of Carlton and of Hall, J and he was in 1621 raised to the
see of Salisbury. He continued in favour to the end of
the reign of King James; but in 1631 he incurred the

DAVENPOKT. 413

displeasure of Charles I., by maintaining the doctrines of
predestination in a sermon he preached before his majesty
at Whitehall. While he was at the synod of Dort, he
inclined to the doctrine of universal redemption, and was
for a middle way between the two extremes ; maintaining
the certainty of the salvation of a certain portion of the
elect, and that offers of pardon were sent not only to all
that should believe and repent, but to all that heard the
Gospel ; that grace sufiQcient to convince and persuade the
impenitent (so as to lay the blame of their condemnation
upon themselves) went along with these offers; that the
redemption of Christ and His merits were applicable to
these ; and consequently there was a possibility of their
salvation. He died in 1641, having published, — 1. Expo-
sitio Epistolae D. Pauli ad Colossenses, folio. It is the
substance of lectures read by Davenant as lady Margaret
professor. '2. Praelectiones de duobus in Theologia Con-
troversis Capitibus ; de Judice Controversiarum, prime;
de Justitia habituaU et actuaU, altero, Cantab. 1631, folio.
3. Determinationes Quaestionum quarundam Theologica-
rum, &c., folio, 1634. 4. Animadversions upon a Treatise
lately published by S. Hoard, and entitled, God's Love to
Mankind, manifested by disproving His absolute decree
for their damnation, Cambridge 1641, Svo.—Bioc/. Brit.

DAVENPORT; JOHN.

John Davenport was born at Coventry in 1597, and
entered at Merton College in 1613. He became a violent
Puritan. After being minister of St. Stephen's, Coleman-
street, London, he went to Amsterdam. At the bveaking
out of the Rebellion he returned to England, but soon
after embarked for America, where he became minister of
Newhaven. He died at Boston in 1669. He wTote a
Catechism containing the chief Heads of the Christian
Religion, and other theological tracts.
2e2

414 DAVENPORT.

DAVENPORT, CHRISTOPHER.

Christopher Davenport, brother of the preceding,
as violent a Papist as his brother was a Puritan, the ex-
tremes meeting in this unfortunate family, was born
at Coventry in 1598, and, like his brother, was entered at
Merton College, Oxford. After remaining there two years
he apostatized, and went to Douay, and in 1617 became a
Franciscan. Under the name of Franciscus a Sanctit
Clara, he came as a missionary priest to England, and was
one of the chaplains to Queen Henrietta Maria. There
was a desire and attempt at that time, more charitable
than judicious, to unite the Churches of England and
Rome. Davenport was zealous in this cause, and was
evidently desirous of making more concessions on the pan
of Rome than the rulers of his church were i)repared to
sanction : they, indeed, wished to concede nothing, but
merely to receive concessions from the Church of England.
His book, " Deus, Natura, Gratia," was highly valued by
Charles I., as being full of complaisance to the protestant
system of the Church of England, and as discovering an
inclination of approaching nearer to them by concessions,
where the Roman Catholic cause would permit it to be
done. But the work was far from being liked at the
Roman court, where it was considered as a very dangerous
production, far too condescending to (so called) schismatics
and heretics. The generality also of the English Roman
Catholics were displeased with it. At Rome they pro-
ceeded to censure it, though the decree was not made
public, the author himself being first summoned to make
his appearance, which he declined on account of infirmity,
promising to give satisfaction any other way.

This, indeed, was bat a private concern, yet it had a
public induence, as things then stood. It was the opinion
of many that the King was inclined to hearken to terms
of a union between the two churches ; and that he looked
on this book of JJavenport as a remote disposition towards

DAVENPORT. 415

it. It was, therefore, deemed an impolitic step in Rome
to let their censure loose against it at this juncture.
Father Phihp (the Queen's Confessor) was very industrious
in acquainting the Roman court with the inconveniences
of rigorous proceedings. He advised them to go on
slowly ; to wink at the author for a time, alleging that he
had submitted himself, and that it would be soon enough
to take notice of him when he persisted, or affairs would
permit a censure. Soon after care was taken to inform
Mr. Secretary Windebank that the condemnation was
suppressed. But it happening that the author, or some
one for him, set forth another edition, in which no sub-
mission was expressed ; Panzani (the Pope's agent in
Eugland) told the secretary, he was afraid the court of
Rome would proceed to a censure, and declare the author
contumacious, that the faithful might not be scandalized.
The account gave Windebank great concern ; and being
acquainted with the author, he conferred with him on the
subject. They agreed in opinion, that a censure would
irritate the King, and divert him from any thoughts of a
union. However, to soften the matter, it was given out,
and confidently reported, that Mr. Davenport was still
prepared to submit himself, and that he had no hand in
the second edition, it being the bookseller's contrivance
solely for the sake of gain. Windebank also pressed
Panzani to take care that they were very cautious at
Rome, for that it would certainly ruin all their projects, if
a work of that pacific tendency were condemned. But
notwithstanding all the care which the author and his
friends could take to stifle the censure, (which as yet was
only privately whispered at Rome,) the Jesuits were very
busy in publishing it among their acquaintance in Eng-
land. Davenport then published an Apology, wherein he
amply declares himself as to the work itself, and submits
himself both in that, and all other matters, to the Roman
see. He was not, however, willing to leave England;
but rather strove to shelter himself under the King's
protection, which to some persons appeared to be a very

416 DAVENPORT.

odd proceeding, and looked as if he designed to go on
further.

He attempted, but in vain, to win Archbishop Laud to
a favourable view of his cause. When the Archbishop
was brought to trial before the rebels, in the seventh
article of his impeachment it is said, that " the said
Archbishop, for the advancement of popery and supersti-
tion within this realm, hath wittingly and willingly
received, harboured, and relieved divers popish priests
and Jesuits, namely, one called Sancta Clara, alias Daven-
port, a dangerous person and Franciscan friar, who hath
written a popish and seditious book, entitled, ' Deus,
Natura, Gratia,' &c., wherein the thirty-nine articles of
the Church of England, established by act of parliament,
are much traduced and scandalized : that the said Arch-
bishop had divers conferences with him, while he was
writing the said book," &c. To which article the Arch-
bishop made this answer : " I never saw that Franciscan
friar, Sancta Clara, in my life, to the utmost of my
memory, above four times or five at most. He was first
brought to me by Dr. Lindsell : but I did fear, that he
would never expound the articles so, that the Church of
England might have cause to thank him for it. He
never came to me after, till he was almost ready to print
another book, to prove that episcopacy was authorized in
the Church by Divine right; and this was after these
unhappy stirs began. His desire was, to have this book
printed here ; but at his several addresses to me for this,
I still gave him this answer : That I did not like the way
which the Church of Rome went concerning episcopacy ;
that I would never consent that any such book from the
pen of a Romanist should be printed here ; that the
Bishops of England are very well able to defend their own
cause and calling, without any help from Rome, and would
do so when they saw cause : and this is all the conference
I ever had with him."

Davenport at this time absconded, and spent most of
those years of trouble in obscurity, sometimes beyond the

DAVID. 417

seas, sometimes at London, sometimes in the country,
and sometimes at Oxford. After the restoratioD of
Charles II., when the marriage was celebrated between
him and Catherine of Portugal, Sancta Clara became one
of her chaplains ; and was for the third time chosen
provincial of his order for England, where he died May
31, 1680, and was buried in the church-yard belonging to
the Savoy. It was his desire, many years before his death,
to retire to Oxford to die, purposely that his bones might
be laid in St. Ebb's church, to which the mansion of the
Franciscans or Grey friars sometime joined, and in which
several of the brethren were anciently interred, particu-
larly those of his old friend John Day, a learned friar of
his order, who was there buried in 1658.

He was the author of several works: 1. " Paraphrastica
expositio articulorum confessionis Anglicae :" this book
was, we know not why, much censured by the Jesuits, who
would fain have had it burnt; but being soon after
licensed at Rome, all farther rumour about it stopped.
2. " Deus, Natura, Gratia : sive, tractatus de praedesti-
natione, de meritis," &c. — Wood. Dodd. Berington.

DAVID, SATNT.

Saint David was the son of Xantus, Prince of Ceretica,
now Cardiganshire, and was born about the close of the
fifth century, and on being ordained priest retired into
the Isle of Wight, the garden of England. From the soli-
tude of this lovely island he at length emerged, having
embraced an ascetic life, and went into Wales, where he
preached the Gospel to the Britons. He built a chapel
at Glastonbury, and founded twelve monasteries, the prin-
cipal of which was in the vale of Ross, near Menevia. Of
this monastery frequent mention is made in the acts of
the Irish saints. The rules he established for his monas-
teries were, as usual, rigid, but not so injudicious or

418 DAVIS.

absurd as some of the early monastic statutes. One of his
penances was manual labour in agriculture, and, for some
time at least, tliere was no accumulation of worldly goods,
for whoever was admitted as a member was enjoined to
leave every thing of that kind behind him. When the
synod of Brevy in Cardiganshire was held in the year 519
St. David was invited to it, and was one of the chief cham-
pions against Pelagianism. At the close of this synod
Dubricius, Archbishop of Caerleon upon Usk, resigned his
see to St. David, who translated it to Menevia, now called
St. David's. Here he died about the year 544 in a very
advanced age.

DAVIS, ROWLAND.

Rowland Davis was born near Cork, in 1649, and
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was ac-
counted an eminent civilian. He w^as made Dean of Cork,
and afterward vicar-general of the diocese. He wrote, A
Letter to a Friend concerning his changing his Religion,
London, 1694, 4to ; and The truly Catholic and Old
Religion, shewing that the Established Church in Ireland
is more truly a member of the Catholic Church, than the
church of Rome, and that all the ancient Christians,
especially in Great Britain and Ireland, were of her com-
munion; Dubhn, 1716, 4to. This was answered the
same year by Timothy O'Brien, D.D., of Toulouse, in a
pamphlet printed at Cork, anonymously, to which Davis
replied in A Letter to the pretended Answer, &c. O'Brien
returned to the charge with Goliath beheaded with his own
Sword, 4to; to which Davis replied in Remarks on a
Pamphlet entitled Goliath, &c. He also published two
occasional S^rraons, Christian Loyalty, and a Charity
Sermon preached at Dublin. — Moreri. Ware.

DAWES. 419

DAWES, SIR WILLIAM.

Sir Willia]\[ Dawes, of York, was born in 1671, at
Lyons, (a seat belonging to his father, Sir John Dawes,
Bart.) near Braintree, in Essex. He was placed at Mer-
chant Taylors' School, in London, and distinguished him-
self, before he was fifteen years of age, by his proficiency
in the classics, and his acquaintance with the Hebrew
language. In 1687 he was elected a scholar of St. John's
College, Oxford, of which he became fellow. Soon after
this, having succeeded to his father's title and estate, he
left Oxford, and entered himself a nobleman in Catherine
Hall, Cambridge. It had been his intention to devote
himself to the clerical profession ; and with the design to
qualify himself for it, he had made the works of some of
the most eminent English divines a considerable branch
of his study, even before he was eighteen years of age.
As soon as he had arrived at the proper age he was
ordained ; and before he had completed his twenty-fifth
year he was created doctor in divinity by royal mandate,
in order to be qualified for the mastership of Catherine
Hall, to which he was elected in 1 696. He succeeded
Dr. John Echard ; and finding the chapel of the college
commenced by him, he contributed very liberally to its
completion; and afterwards, through his interest with
Queen Anne, obtained an act of parliament, by which a
prebend of Norwich is permanently attached to the
mastership of Catherine Hall. He was always distin-
tinguished for his munificence. Soon afterwards he was
appointed Vice-chancellor of the University, and chaplain
in ordinary to William III., who also presented him to a
prebendary of Worcester. In 1698 he was collated by
Archbishop Tenison to the rectory and deanery of Booking,
in Essex. After the accession of Queen Anne he was
appointed one of her chaplains. In 1705 he would have
been nominated to the bishopric of Lincoln, had he not

4*40 DECKER.

incurred the displeasure of certain persons in power, in
consequence of some unpalatable observations in a sermon
preached by him before the Queen, on the 30th of January,
whence they were led to persuade her, contrary to her
inclination, to give the vacant see to Dr. Wake, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury. This however made no impres-
sion upon Sir William, and therefore when he was told by
a certain nobleman that he lost a bishopric by his preach-
ing, his reply was, " That as to that he had no manner of
concern, because his intention was never to gain one by
preaching." In 1707, however, a vacancy taking place in
the see of Chester, the Queen, of her own accord, appoint-
ed Sir William to that bishopric; whence, in 1714, he
was translated to the archiepiscopal see of York. As a
preacher he was the most popular of his day. He wrote a
poem called The Anatomy of Atheism, 1693, 4to ; The
Duties of the Closet, &c. ; The Duties of Communicating
explained and enforced, &c. ; Sermons preached upon
several occasions before King William and Queen Anne,
1707, 8vo; The Preface to the Works of Offspring
Blackall, D.D., Bishop of Exeter, 1723, folio. He died
in 17 '24. — Preface to his JVorks.

DECKEK, OR DECKHEE, JOHN.

John Decker was born at Hazebruck, in Flanders, in
1559. He was a Jesuit, and became professor of theology
at Douay and Louvain. He was sent on an embassy into
Stiria, and was made Chancellor of Gratz University,
where he died in 1619. He wrote Velification, sue
Theoremata de Anno Ortus ac Mortis Domini, 4to. ;
Tabula Chronographica a capta per Pompeium Hiero-
solyma ad deletam a Tito Urbem, 4to, in which he dis-
played great erudition and an extensive knowledge of
chronology. — Moreri.

BELRIO. 4-21

DELANY, PATKICK.

Patrick Delany was born in Ireland, in 1686. He
received his education in Trinity College, Dublin, where
he obtained a fellowship, and the degree of doctor in
divinity. He was very intimate with Swift, by whose
interest he procured the chancellorship of Christ-church,
and a prebend in the cathedral of St. Patrick. In 1744,
he was made Dean of Down. He died at Bath in 1768.
He was twice married. His second wife was distin-
guished as an artist, and honoured by the friendship of
George the Third. The Dean published — 1. Revelation
examined with Candour, 3 vols, 8vo. 2. Reflections on Poly-
gamy, 8vo. 3. The Life of David, 3 vols, 8vo. 4. Sermons
on the Relative Duties, Svo. 5. Remarks on Orrery's
Life of Swift, 8vo. 6. The Humourist, a periodical
paper. — Bivg. Brit.

DELRIO, MARTIN ANTONY.

Martin Antony Delrio was born at Antwerp, iii 155L
At the age of nineteen he published notes on the tragedies
of Seneca ; and was admitted doctor of laws at Salamanca
in 1574. He afterwards became a counsellor of the par-
liament of Brabant; but in 1580 he entered into the
society of Jesuits. He died at Louvain in 1608. He pub-
lished an edition of Solinus, and a few years afterwards,
notes on Claudian, and on the tragedies of Seneca, toge-
ther with some treatises on law ; also Disquisitiones
Magicae, in 3 vols, 4to, 1599 and 1691 ; Commentaries on
Genesis, the Song of Solomon, and the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, 3 vols, 4to, 1604 and 1608 ; Sacred Adages of
the Old and New Testaments, in Latin, in two vols, 4to,
1612 ; three volumes of Explications of some of the most
difficult and important Passages of Scripture ; Vindicia^
Areopagitae, 1607; Peniculus Foriarum Elenchi Scali^
geriani pro Societate Jesu. — Bioff. UniverseUe. Moren.

VOL. IV 2 s

122 DERHAM.

DENNE, JOHN.

John Denne was born at Littlebourne in Kent, in 1693.
He was educated first at Sandwich, next at Canterbury,
and lastly at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he
took his degree and obtained a fellowship. On receiving
holy orders he was presented to the perpetual curacy of
St. Benedict's, Cambridge, and in 1721 to the rectory of
Green Norton, Northamptonshire. This last he exchanged
in 1723 for the vicarage of St. Leonard, Shoreditch. In
1725 he preached the Boyle's Lecture ; and in 1728, being
then doctor in divinity, he was installed Archdeacon of
Rochester, to which was added in the following year the
vicarage of St. Margaret's in that city ; but this he resigned
on being presented to the rectory of Lambeth in 1731.
He died in 1767. Dr. Denne pubhshed — 1. Some Ser-
mons. 2. Articles of Inquiry for a Parochial Visitation.
3. The state of Bromley College in Kent. 4. A Register
of Benefactions to the parish of Shoreditch, 4to. He
assisted Mr. Lewis in his Life of Wickliffe, collated
Hearne's Textus Roffensis, and intended to have written
a History of the Church of Rochester. — Masters s Hist, of
C.C.C.C. Nichols's Bowyer.

DERHAM, WILLIAM.

William Derham was born at Stoughton, near Worces-
ter, in 1657, and having received his primary education at
Blockley in his native county, was sent to Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1675. He was ordained deacon by Bishop
Compton in 1681, and priest by Ward, Bishop of Salis-
bury, in 1682. Being presented in the same year to the
living of Wargrave, in Berkshire, and in 1689 to the
rectory of Upminster, in Essex, he devoted the best part
of the time he could spare from his parochial duties to
liiathematics and experimental philosophy, making these

DERING. 423

'studies subservient to the claims of religion, and the duties
of his sacred calling. In 1702 he was chosen fellow of
the Royal Society, and enriched the Philosophical Tran-
sactions with many valuable communications. In 1716
he was made canon of Windsor ; and the university of
Oxford, in 1730, granted him the degree of D.D. for his
meritorious services in the cause of science and religion,
*' Ob libros ab ipso editos, quibus physicam et mathesin
auctiorem reddidit, et ad religionem veramque fidem
revocavit." His publications are very numerous, and are
mostly on philosophical subjects. The best known of his
works are his Physico-Theology, sixteen discourses preached
at the Boyle Lecture, in 1711 and 1712, and in 1714 his
Astro-Theology, and in 1730 his Christo-Theology, a ser-
mon to prove the Divine origin of Christianity ; besides The
Artificial Clock- maker, an ingenious book written in his
younger years, the fourth edition of which was published
in 1734. He also revised the Miscellanea Curiosa, pre-
pared notes and observations for Eleazar Albin's Natural
History, 4 vols, 4to, and published some pieces of Mr. Ray,
of which he had procured the MSS., and also the phi-
losophical experiments of Dr. Robert Hook. The last
published work of his own was entitled, A Defence of the
Church's Right in Leasehold Estates, written in answer
to a work entitled, An Inquiry into the Customary
Estates and Tenant-rights of those who hold Lands of
the Church and other foundations, published in the
name of Everard Fleetwood. He died, deservedly lament-
ed, at his rectory at Upminster, on the 5th of April,
17^6.— Biog. Brit.

BERING, EDWARD.

Edward Dering was a native of Kent, and educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he was chosen fellow
in 1568. In 1567 he was admitted Lady Margaret's pro-
fessor of divinity. He was also one of the preachers at
St. Paul's, and in 1569 obtained the rectory of Pluckley,

4U BERING.

in the diocese of Canterbury, and became chaplain to the
Dnke of Norfolk. In 1571 he was presented by the Queen
to the prebend of Chardstoke, in the cathedral of Salisbury.
He was a bitter puritan, and violently opposed to the prin-
ciples of the English Reformation. The following account
is given of him by Strype. He was one of the head puritans
in his days, and a person of some authority, being chaplain
to the Duke of Norfolk, and of a gix^d family in Kent. He
was also esteemed a great preacher and a great scholar in
London and in Cambridge. He did conform, indeed, to
the use of the cap and surplice, and bore with the calling
of Bishops and Archbishops, though he liked neither, and
was earnest to have them abolished. As he was a man of
great confidence and assurance, so he was of as great zeal
and heat ; and would take the freedom to speak his mind
to the highest, as he did often to the Lord Treasurer
Burghley ; who having sent down, not long before, some
new statutes to Cambridge, as their chancellor, upon the
complaints of the heads of that university against the
tumults and disorders, occasioned by such who spake
against and disobeyed the ecclesiastical orders, and against
the jurisdiction and superiority of Bishops; Mr. Bering
presumed to write a long letter to him, dated November
18, 1570, charging him highly for so doing; saying, that
he had sent unrighteous statutes to Cambridge. He be-
lieved, he said, he was moved to do this by the information
of the heads, that there were great troubles there ; but on
the other hand, Bering informed him, that there was good
quietness, in respect of the tumults that his statutes
brought; telling him, if he did not believe him, he did
him wrong, being a minister of Christ. That the doctors
and heads had procured him to enjoin new statutes, to
the utter undoing of them that feared God ; and to the
burdening of their consciences, that dared not yield unto
sin. And he then proceeded to shew what kind of men
these doctors and heads were, to whom he had given such
credit: namely, Br. Pern, of Peter-house ; Br. Harvey, of
Trinity-hall ; Br. Caius, founder and master of Caius

BERING. 425

College ; Dr. Hawford, master of Christ's ; Dr. Ithel,
master of Jesus. He said, they were all either enemies
of God's Gospel, or so faint professors, that they did little
good in the Church. That he would not tell their private
faults ; but he kuew so many, as, if his lordship feared
God, it would grieve him to see such masters of colleges.
That Dr. Harvey had scarce chosen one protestant to be
fellow these twelve years. [That is, from the time he was
put in master, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's
reign, to that time.] That Dr. Pern kept such curates as
fled away beyond the seas : [meaning that turned Roman
Catholics, and went thither for the profession and exercise
of their religion.] That Dr. Hawford could not be brought
to take away neither popish boolvs nor garments without
great importunity ; and, in the end, all the best and rich-
est he conveyed, none of the fellows knew whither. Of
Dr. May, of Katherine-hall, and Dr. Chaderton, of Queen's,
he said, there was small constancy, either in their lives or
in their religion. That Dr. Whitgift, of Trinity College,
was a man whom he had loved ; but yet he was a man,
and God had suffered him to fall into great infirmities ;
so froward a mind against Mr. Cartwright, and other such,
bewrayed a conscience full of sickness. That his affections
ruled him, and not his learning, when he framed his
cogitations to get new statutes. I observe here, by the
way, of what masters he is silent : namely, of Pembroke-
hall, who was Dr. Fulk; of Magdalen, Dr: Kelk ; of
St. John's, Longworth, or Shepherd ; of Bene't, AJdrich ;
of King's, Dr, Goad. And these were puritans, or favour-
ers of them.

After Dering had charged Sir William Cecil home with
these statutes, he advised him to make some reparations.
"That he, that had been brought so easily to hurt God's
people, to do pleasure to the pope, and with so fearful
statutes (I repeat his words) had proceeded to the punish-
ment of so small offences, should make some good statutes
that might punish sm.'^ And particularly to send down
•2s 2

426 DERTNG.

a new statute, that no master of a house should have a
benefice, except he served it himself.

This Dering was disliked bj the Bishops, and some
other great personages, and men of countenance, and
charged by them to be a vain man, and full of fancies.
The reason whereof was, as he gave it himself, that he
would boldly tell them of their common swearing by the
name of God, and of their covetousness. He would com-
plain much of papists ; which in twelve years, during
which space the Queen had reigned, had never received
the Sacrament. He spoke against their courtly apparel ;
that it was not meet for such as should be more sober.
He would not accompany and consort with such as were
open persecutors of the Church of God. It grieved him
to see a benefice of a great parish given from a spiritual
pastor to a temporal man : and that, for a hundred pound
in gold, the Bishop should give his good-will to grant a
lease of a beneiice for a hundred years to come. These,
and such like things, when he observed, he w^ould freely
speak his mind of; and perhaps was too apt to believe
and spread slanderous reports, especially of Bishops.
The letter of this man to Sir William Cecil, out of which
I have collected for the most part, what is mentioned
before, I have reposited in the appendix.

He read lectures in St. Paul's. But he had vented
such doctrines there, that he was convented before the
lords, and forbid to read any more in that place. In his
readings there, he condemned the quoting of fathers in
pulpits; styling it, filling the pulpits with doctors and
councils, and many vanities, where they should only speak
the word of God. " Did I speak," said he, "out of the
fathers, and knew it not to be the word of God, be it never
so true in the doctors' mouth, in mine it is sin, because I
speak not as I am taught of God." He in these lectures
was a zealous assertor of the sufferings of Christ's soul in
his passion : saying ' He suffered, for our sakes, not only
the torments of His body, but the anguish of His soul, and

BERING. 427

the wrath of His Father. Fj upon tliose blasphemous
speeches, and cursed words, which saj, He suffered nothing
but bodily pain.'' He taught such doctrines as seemed to
derogate from the civil power, and to free good Christians
from earthly magistrates : saying, "that God had made a
Christian lord of all ; and in heaven and earth w^e have no
lord but the Lord Jesus. By faith we are one with Him ;
His power is ours : we reign with Him, we are risen with
Him, and the world hath no power over us." What shall
we think of such servile men, who will lead us into bond-
age of every trifle, whom Christ hath made rulers over all
the world? As though he held the doctrine of dominion
founded in grace. These, and such like unwary expres-
sions, not to say worse, were vented by him in his readings
upon the Epistle to tlie Hebrews, which were printed.
And which, I su|)pose, might be the occasion that his
readings were restrained by authority.

It is not surprising that such a man should be forbidden
by the privy council to preach, which was the case in 1573.
It was reported of Bering when brought before the council,
that he said in his lecture at Pauls upon Tuesday was
seven-night, the 3rd of April, that Christ did descend into
hell only, by suffering the great burden of our sins, hang-
ing on the cross. And that that descending that the old
fathers do speak upon, that he should afterwards descend
into hell, is but a mere superstitious error of the fathers,
and papistry.

In his lecture, the fifth of this month, he likewise
affirmed the same ; and also did say that it was unlawful,
and against the law of nature, that any man should be
suffered to hang on any gallows after that he is dead.

In* the next lecture, the seventh of this month, he did
say, that nowadays it was thought well enough for a good
minister, if he have a gown, and a cap and tippet, though
he do not preach. If he have a gow^n and tippet, he is an
honest man : if he have a gown and tippet, he is well
learned, and hath no fault, and that though he do never
come at his benefice.

4-28 BERING.

Item, At bis lecture he openly protested, that of right
the election of ministers to benefices or cures belongeth
to the people, and of ancient writers is justified that it
ought to be so.

Item, The 11th day of December, 157^, he said, put-
ting off his cap, Now I will prophesy, that Matthew Parker
shall be the last Archbishop of Canterbury : or (as it is
related in another MS.) that he shall be the last Arch-
bishop that shall sit in that seat. Accipio omen, quoth
Cartwright. The third man said, that they should first rue
it, with other opprobious words spoke at that time.

The issue of the appearance and examination of these
men was this. The council took order, that Dering should
not read his lectures at St. Paul's.

But, says Strype, during his suspension, the Bishop
of London out of his good nature interceded with the
Lord Treasurer for his liberty to read again, and that his
lordship would procure the consent of the lords to release
him, and to suffer him to proceed with his lecture as
before ; so that he taught sound doctrine, exhorted to
virtue, dehorted from vice ; and touching matter of order
and policy, meddled not with them, but left them to the
magistrate. And he believed, he said, Dering would l>e
brought unto it. He thought these general dealings best
for the present time, and would quiet many minds. He
thought a soft plaster better than a corrosive to be applied
in this sort. That this man would be spared, but well
schooled. But this council towards this man, and at this
time, the Lord Treasurer disliked, and sharply reproved
the Bishop of London, who gave it. But however the
bishop got oif Dering s suspension, and had him restored.
And this witliout the advice of the bishops, commissk>ners,
and notwithstanding Dering's favourable thoughts of Cart-
wright's book. For there had been several dangerous
articles taken out of that book, propounded unto Dering
for his answer, to try his judgment before they thought tit
to restore him. And his answers proved to be such as

BERING. 429

looked very kindly towards the opinions therein : yet be
found favour, and was allowed again to read and preach.

But behold the issue and the reward ! He and his
party hereat triumphed unmeasureably in London ; giving
out, that her majesty, and the whole council, liked well of
Bering, and of his assertions before set down ; and that
it was only the malicious proud bishop that sought his
trouble.

When the lords had thus set Bering at liberty to read
again, and that notwithstanding his open favouring of
Cartwright's principles, the archbishop, and several other
bishops were much troubled. The Bishop of Ely wrote
hereupon to the Lord Treasurer, disapproving of the coun-
cils act in restoring him by their own authority, as a man
sound in judgment, without consulting and advising with
spiritual men ; whose proper function and business it had
been. And that they ought not to have determined of
religion without the assistance of such as were professors
of the same. For this favourable proceeding with Bering
was upon an answer he gave to some articles that were
offered him concerning Cartwright's book, as was said before.
Which answers the Bishop of Ely said were fond and un-
true; but the council, on the other hand, seemed satisfied
with those answers. And the bishop affirmed, that they
ought in these matters to have taken the judgment of
divines. And for proof hereof, he put the Lord Treasurer
in mind of two authorities ; the one of Arcadius and
Honorius, the other of Bullinger, whom he styled, Columna
una in ecclesia Christi; i.e. " one of the pillars in Christ's
Chur^jh." That of Arcadius and Honorius was this, Quo-
tws de religione agitur, Ejnscojjos convenit agitare : that
is, " As often as the matter is concerning religion, it is
convenient to call upon the bishops." That of Bullinger,
Sacerdotum proprimn est qfficium, de religione ex verho Dei
constituere. Prindpum autem est, juvare Sacerdotes et
provehere tnerique veram religion em, : that is, "It is the
proper office of priests to determine concerning religion
out of God's Word ; and of princes to assist the priests.

430 DERING.

and to promote and defend true religion." And for this
cause, added he, in all godly assemblies priests have
usually been called, as in parliaments, in privy councils,
especially when matters of religion have been treated of.
And the said godly bishop seemed inclinable in his zeal
to move the Queen's majesty in this matter. But he
trusted the Lord Treasurer in his wisdom and godly zeal
would do it.

The Bishop of London was silent when Bering and
three others were cited into the Star-chamber, and had
favour. For this silence the Queen bitterly rebuked him
afterward, when it was heard how Bering and his party
had carried themselves upon his liberty.

Between Bering and the Bishop of London, after he
had procured him permission to read his lecture again,
Strype observes, there happened some contest. For when
Bering came to the Bishop to tell him that the council
had by their letters restored him ; adding, that he never
thought he should be kept long from it ; for that the
whole council favoured him, except the Lord Treasurer; the
Bishop desired to see his letters. He answered they were
at home. [Indeed the council gave him no letters.] The
Bishop said, he would see them, or he should not read ;
and added, that except he read more soberly and discreetly
than he had done, he would forbid him reading in Paul's.
Bering replied. If you do forbid me, I think that I shall
obey, lest some disordered fellows bid you come off your
horse when you shall ride down Cheapside, [boasting of
his popularity.] But the Bishop in some heat answered,
your threatenings shall not terrify me. For I will forth-
with ride down Cheapside to try what your disordered
scholars will do. ♦

Bering being, as you see, of an hot spirit, was not long
after silenced a second time. Which was done upon the
Bishop's complaint to the Lord Treasurer and council
against him, and upon his desire expressed to the said
Treasurer, that Bering still standing against the estab-
lished Church, he would get an order to be sent from the

DERING. ^ 481

Queen, to forbid him to read his lectures any more. The
Bishop had told the said lord, how he had in his church
opposed and spoken against the orders of the Church.
Whereupon the Treasurer declared, that if any Bishop
of any church shall understand, that any public reader in
his church doth oppugn the common order of the ministry
in the Church established by law, it is his duty, upon
good knowledge thereof, to remove him. The Bishop also
writ both to the Lord Treasurer and Earl of Leicester,
concerning his dislike of Bering's continuance. And they
at length acquainted the Queen therewith : who thereupon
commanded the Treasurer to charge the Bishop to remove
him. And so she commanded him to notify to her coun-
cil. A warrant for this purpose was sent to the Bishop to
disallow Bering from reading. Which was accordingly
done by the Bishop : and he desired to know, whether he
should place another in his room.

Bering about this time carried a falsehood to the Lord
Treasurer concerning the Bishop. Which created the poor
Bishop some trouble before he could be well reconciled
to that lord again. For Bering "brought a report to the
Lord Treasurer's ears, that he and the Bishop being
together, and arguing concerning his being outed of his
lectureship, the Bishop, to draw the odium from himself,
and to lay it somewhere else, charged the matter wholly
upon the Lord Treasurer. This the Treasurer took in ill
part from the Bishop, as though he should in an open
presence tell Mr. Bering, that he knew no other cause
to displace him, but that my Lord Treasurer willed
him so to do : and that otherwise he had no matter
to charge him withal. Upon this the Treasurer wrote
an expostulatory letter to the Bishop. To which the
Bishop made answer, denying it utterly, that he had
said any such word of his Lordship. And " that, upon
the faith of a Christian, there never passed such word
privately or publicly between Bering and him, neither
yet any others. But that it was Bering's custom to lie."
It was his common fault, and commonly noted of him ;

43'^ DICKSON.

and these are some of the transactions between the Bishop
and Dering, and of the unhappy Church contentions in
London.

When Sampson was obliged to retire from the lecture
at Whittington College, London, he endeavoured to ob-
tain the appointment for Dering, but was unsuccessful.
Dering died in 1573. His principal works are: — 1. A
Lecture or Exposition upon a part of the fifth chapter of
the Epistle to the Hebrews, as it was read in St. Paul's,
December 6, 1572, London, 1581, 16mo. This work was
extended to twenty-seven Lectures or Readings upon part
of that Epistle, 1576. *2. A Sermon preached before the
Queen's majesty, February 25, 1569, London 1584. 3. A
Sermon preached at the Tower of London, December 11,
1569, i6. 1584. 4. Certain godly and comfortable Letters,
full of Christian consolation, &c. 4to ; all of which, with
some other tracts of Dering's, were collected and print' d
in one vol. 8vo, by Field,, in 1595. — Strype's Parker and
Annals. Tanner. Fuller.

DEUSDEDIT.

Deusdedit was the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury,
and succeeded Honorius after the see had been vacant
eighteen months. His original name was Frithona, and
he took the name of Deusdedit on his consecration. He
died in 664. He was a man famous for his learning and
other virtues, was the first Englishman or Saxon who
was archbishop, and was the last archbishop who was
buried in the church porch of St. Augustines. — Godwin.

DICKSON, DAVID.

David Dickson was bom at Glasgow in 1583. After
taking his degree of Master of Arts, he became professor
of philosophy in the College of Glasgow. He was in the
Presbyterian ministry, and was chiefly distinguished for
his bitter and incessant hatred of the Church. In 1614

DIETERIC. 483

became professor of divinity at Glasgow ; from whence he
removed to Edinburgh, but was ejected for nonconforniity
in 1662 ; and died the same year. He wrote — LA Com-
mentary on the Hebrews, 8vo. 2. On Matthew, 4to.
o. On the Psalms, 3 vols. 12mo. 4. On the Epistles,
Latin and English, folio. 5. Therapeutica Sacra, 4to.
6. A Treatise on the Promises, 12mo. He had a share in
drawing up the Confession of Faith, on which he deli-
vered Praelectiones, which were published in folio. — Scot's
Worthies.

DIECMAN, JOHN.

John Diec^man, a Lutheran theologian, was born at
Stade in 1647. He became superintendant of the duchies
of Bremen and Verdun, and rector of the university of
Stade, where he died in 1724. He wrote — 1 . De naturalismo
cum aliorum, tum maxime Joannis Bodini, ex Opere ejus
manuscripto Anecdote, de abditis Eerum sublimium Ar-
canis, Schediasma, licipsic, 1684, 12mo. 2. Specimen
Glossarii Latino-theotisci. 3. Dissertationes de sparsione
Florum. 4. De Dissensu Ecclesiae Orientalis etLatinae circa
Purgatorium. 5. Enneades Animadversionum in diversa
Loca Annalium Cardinalis Baronii, &c. He wrote also
various tracts in the German language, published at Ham-
burgh, 1709, 4to. But he is, perhaps, better known as
the publisher of an edition of the Stade Bible, which is a
revision of Luther's German Bible. — Moreri.

DIETERIC, JOHN CONEAD.

John Conrad Dieteric, a Lutheran theologian, was
Wn at Butzbach, in Germany, in 1612. He became pro-
fessor of Greek and History at Giessen, where he died in
1669. He wrote, — De Peregrinatione Studiorum ; Grtecia
exulans, seu de Infelicitate superioris Saeculi, in Gra3carum

VOL. IV. 2 T

iU DIEU.

Literarum Ignoratione ; Antiquitates Romanas ; latreum
Hippocraticum ; Breviarium Haereticorum et Conciliorum ;
Lexicon Etymologico-Gragcum ; Antiquitates Biblicae, in
quibus Decreta, Prophetse, Sermones, Consuetudines,
Ritusque ac Dicta Veteris Testamenti de Rebus Judaeorum
et Gentilium qua sacris, qua profanis, expenduntur, ex
Editione Jo. Just. Pistorii, 1671, folio; and Antiquitates
Novi Testamenti, seu Illustramentum Novi Testamenti;
sive Lexicon Philologico-theologicum Graeco-Latinum in

Novum Testamentum, 1680, folio. Moreri Biog.

Universelle.

DIEU, LEWIS DE,

Lewis de Dieu, a Protestant theologian, was born at
Flushing in 1590. He became professor in the Walloon
College, at Leyden ; and died there in 1642. He pub-
lished, or wrote, Compendium GrammaticsB Hebraicee,
Leyden, 1626, 4to , Apocalypsis S. Joannas Syriace ex
Manuscripto exemplari Bibliothecae Jos. Scaligeri edita,
&c. Leyden, 1627, 4to ; Grammatica Trilinguis, He-
braica, Syriaca, et Chaldaica, ibid. 1628, 4to ; Animad-
versiones in quatuor Evangelia, ibid. 1631, 4to ; Anim-
adversiones in Acta Apostolorum, ibid. 1634, 4to ; His-
toria Christi et S. Petri Persice conscripta, ibid. 1639,
4to ; Rudimenta Linguae Persicae, ibid. 1639, 4to ;
Animadversiones in Epistolam ad Romanes et reliquas
Epistolas, ibid. 1646, 4to ; Animadversiones in omnes
Libros Veteris Testamenti, ibid. 1648; Critica Sacra, sive
Animadversiones in Loca quaedam difficiliora Veteris et
Novi Testamenti, Amst. 1693, folio; Grammatica Lingua-
rum Orientalium ex Recensione Davidis Clodii, Francfort,
l683,4to; Aphorismi Theologi, Utrecht, 1693; Traite
centre r Avarice ; Deventer, 1693, 8vo; Rhetorica Sacra. —
Gen. Diet. Moreri.

DIONYSIUS. 435

DIXANTO, DAVID DE.

David de Dinanto, a heretic of the thirteenth century,
was a disciple of Amauri, or Almaric, who imbibed
many errors from the study of Aristotle, and fell under
the ecclesiastical censure of the second couDcil of
Paris. The writings both of Amauri and Dinanto were
condemned to be burnt ; which sentence was followed
by a general prohibition of the use of the physical
and metaphysical writings of Aristotle in the schools
by the synod of Paris, and afterwards under pope
Innocent III. by the council of the Lateran. Dinanto
composed a work entitled Quaternarii, with several other
productions, which were chiefly designed to affect and
gain the multitude, in which he partly succeeded, until

he was obliged to save himself by flight. Moreri. Biog.

Universelle.

DINOEART, ANTHONY JOSEPH TOUSSAINT.

Anthony Dinoraet, a French theologian, was born at
Amiens in 1715, and died at Paris in 1786. He was
canon to the chapter of St. Benedict at Paris, and mem-
ber of the society of Arcadi at Ptome. He wrote an
Ecclesiastical Journal; also Embryologia Sacra, 12mo;
the Manual for Pastors, 3 vols. 12mo; the Pihetoric of

Preachers, &c. ; Anecdotes Ecclesiastiques, &c. Diet.

Hist.

DIONYSTUS.

DiONYSius the Areopagite, was originally of Thrace,
according to the dialogues ascribed, though incorrectly, to
Caesarius, the brother of Gregory Nazianzen. St. Chrysos-
tom asserts that he was a citizen of Athens. He was a
member of the council of Areopagus, which was, properly
speaking, the court for criminal causes in that city. When

436 DIONYSIUS.

St. Paul preached at Athens, Dionysius was one of his
converts. A woman named Damaris partook of the same
happiness, and by some of the fathers she is spoken of as
the wife of Dionysius. He was the first Bishop of Athens,
as we learn from his namesake of Corinth. He crowned
his hfe with a glorius martyrdom, after having given an
illustrious testimony of his faith, and suffered most hor-
rible torments. The works attributed to him are spurious,
and could hardly have been composed before the sixth
century. They were printed at Cologne in 1536 ; at Ant-
werp in 1634, and at Paris in 1644. — Tillemont. Cave.

DIONYSIUS.

Dionysius, of Corinth, flourished according to Eusebius
in his Chronicon about the year 171. At the eleventh
year of the reign of Marcus Antoninus, he speaks of
Dionysius Bishop of Corinth, as " a sacred man," then
in reputation.

St. Jerome says of him, that he had a great deal of elo-
quence and zeal; and that he shewed in his writings from
what philosophers each heresy had taken its poison. He
has been spoken of as a martyr, but without any founda-
tion in antiquity. The following is the account of his
writings given by Eusebius :

Dionysius was appointed over the church at Corinth,
and imparted freely, not only to his own people, but
to others abroad also, the blessings of his divine labours.
But he was most useful to all in the catholic epistles
that he addressed to the churches ; one of which is
addressed to the Lacedaemonians, and contains instruc-
tions in the true religion, and inculcates peace and
unity. One also to the Athenians, exciting them to
the faith, and the life prescribed by the gospel, from
which he shows that they had swerved, so that they had
nearly fallen from the truth, since the martyrdom of
Publius, then bishop, which happened in the persecutions

DIONYSIUS. 437

of those times. He also makes mention of Quadratus,
who was bishop after the martyrdom of Publius, bearing
witness also that the church was again collected, and the
faith of the people revived by his exertions. He states,
moreover, that Dionysius the Areopagite, who was con-
verted to the faith by Paul the Apostle, according to the
statement in the Acts of the Apostles, first obtained the
episcopate of the church at Athens. There is also another
epistle of his extant, addressed to the Nicomedians, in
which he refutes the heresy of Marcion, and adheres
closely to the rule of faith. In an epistle to the church
of Gortyna, and to the other churches in Crete, he com-
mends their bishop Philip, for the numerous instances of
fortitude that the church evinced under him, according to
the testimony of all, whilst he cautions them against the
perversions of the heretics. He also wrote to the Church
at xlraastris, together with those at Pontus, in which he
makes mention of Bacchylides and Elpistus, as those who
urged him to write. He also adds some expositions of
the sacred writings, where he intimates that Palmas was
then bishop. He also recommends many things in regard
to marriage, and the purity to be observed by those who
enter this state, and enjoins upon the Church to receive
kindly all that return again from their backslidings,
whether heresy or delinquency. Among them is also
inserted an epistle to the Gnossians, in which he admon-
ishes Pinytus, the bishop of the church, not to impose
upon the brethren without necessity, a burden in regard
to purity too great to be borne, but to pay regard to the
infirmity of the great mass. To which Pinytus, writing
in reply, admires and applauds Dionysius, but exhorts
him at the same time to impart some time or other
stronger food, and to feed the people under him with
writings abounding in more perfect doctrine when he
wrote again, so that they might not remain constantly
nurtured with milk, and imperceptibly grow old, under a
discipline calculated only for children. In which epistle,
2t -2

488 DIONYSIUS.

also, the correct views which Pinytus cherished, his solici-
tude respecting the welfare of those that were committed
to his care, and his learning and intelligence in divine
matters, are exhibited as in a most perfect image. There
is yet another epistle, to the Romans, ascribed to Diony-
sius, and addressed to Soter the bishop of that city, from
which we may also subjoin some extracts, from that part
where he commends a practice of the Romans retained
even to the persecution in our day. He writes as follows:
" For this practice has prevailed with you from the very
beginning, to do good to all the brethren in every way,
and to send contributions to many churches in every city.
Thus refreshing the needy in their want, and furnishing
to the brethren condemned to the mines, what was neces-
sary ; by these contributions which ye have been accus-
tomed to send from the beginning, you preserve, as
Romans, the practices of your ancestors. Which was not
only observed by your bishop Soter, but also increased, as
he not only furnished great supplies to the saints, but
also encouraged the brethren that came from abroad, as a
loving father his children, with consolatory words." In
this same letter he mentions that of Clement to the
Corinthians, showing that it was the practice to read in
the churches, even from the earliest times. "To-day,"
says he, " we have passed the Lord's holy-day, in which
we have read your epistle ; in reading w^hich we shall
always have our minds stored with admonition, as we
shall, also, from that written to us before by Clement."
Besides this, the same author writes respecting his own
epistles as having been corrupted: "As the brethren,"
says he, " desired me to wTite epistles, 1 wrote them, and
these the apostles of the devil have filled wdth tares,
exchanging some things, and adding others, for whom
there is a woe reserved. It is not, therefore, matter of
wonder, if some have also attempted to adulterate the
sacred writings of the Lord, since they have attempted the
sarao in other works that are not to be compared with

DIONYSIUS. 439

these." There is also another epistle attributed to this
Dionjsius, addressed to his most faithful sister Chryso-
phora, in which he writes what was suitable to her, and
imparts also to her the proper spiritual food. — Eusehius.

DIOXYSIUS.

DioNYSius, of Alexandria, was a Sabaite by birth, that
is, as appears probable, an Arabian : he was of an honour-
able and wealthy family, but a pagan. It happened that
the Epistles of St. Paul were one day lent to him by a
poor woman who had embraced the true faith ; and a
perusal of them induced him not only to purchase the
volume, but to make inquiry whether the Christians were
in possession of other works that bore a similar character.
The woman advised him to apply to the priests of the
Church ; and, on his complying with her advice, the books
which they lent, and the instructions which they gave him,
were made the means of his conversion.

He had Origen for his master, and was one of the most
grateful pupils of that eminent man. Upon the promotion
of Heraclas to the bishopric of Alexandria, in 8'21, or 'd'29,,
Dionysius succeeded him in the catechetical school of that
city, and was very successful in bringing many pagans to
the knowledge of the truth. In his third epistle concern-
ing baptism, written to Philemon, a presbyter of Rome,
he relates the following circumstances : " I perused," says
he, " the works and traditions of the heretics, defiling ray
mind for a little with their execrable sentiments ; but I have
also derived this benefit from them, viz., to refute them in
my own mind, and to feel the greater disgust at them.
And when a certain brother of the presbyters attempted
to restrain me, and was much in dread lest I should be
carried aw^ay by this sink of iniquity, saying that my mind
would be corrupted, in which he spoke the truth, as I
thought, I was confirmed in my purpose by a vision sent
me from heaven, when a voice came to me and commanded

440 DIONYSIUS.

me in words as follows : ' Read all that thou takest in
hand, for thou art qualified to correct and prove all, and
this very thing has been the cause of thy faith in Christ
from the beginning.' I received the vision as coinciding
with the apostolic declaration, which says to the more
competent, ' Be ye skilful money-changers.' "

In the year 247, or 248, Dionysius succeeded Heraclas
in the episcopate, being a married man. He was the
thirteenth Archbishop of Alexandria. His episcopate was
full of trouble. Even before the Decian persecution, which
commenced in 249, or 250 ; the Christians of Alexandria
had suffered persecution under Philip. The following is
the account of the conduct of Dionysius on the occasion,
as given by Mr, Neale, who follows the hypothesis of
Bysei!*!.

On the first tidings of the persecution, the consterna-
tion in Alexandria was dreadful. Some of those who had
previously made a high profession, ran voluntarily to the
altars, exclaiming that they had never been Christians,
and sacrificing with alacrity ; others, urged on by their
neighbours, came with pale countenances and trembling
limbs, amidst the jeers and mockery of the heathen, who
evidently perceived them to be almost equally afraid of
living by sin, or dying in torments. Others confessed the
name of Christ before the magistrate, were thrown into
prison, and after a few days' endurance, apostatized ;
others, after resisting the torture for some time, yielded
to it, and offered sacrifice.

Dionysius gives us an account of what befel himself,
prefacing his statement with an appeal to God that his
story is exactly true. The edict for persecution had no
sooner reached Alexandria, than Sabinus, Augusta! prae-
fect, dispatched a sergeant of police in search of the prelate.
The Bishop remained quietly in his house ; while the
party of soldiers sought him for four days, in every unlikely
place, roads, rivers, and fields; but by a divine infatuation,
never thought of searching the Bishop's own habitation.
On the fifth day, Dionysius received a supernatural inti-

DIONYSIUS. 441

mation to fly ; lie was accompanied by his children and
several of his priests. During his journey, he was made
useful to some of his flock ; probably in confirming their
minds, and alleviating their fears.

At sunset, however, the Bishop fell into the hands of
his persecutors ; and, it being then not more than five or
six o'clock, was examined before the magistrates, and
sentenced to exile at Taposiris. This was a little city in
Mareotis, about a day's journey from Alexandria. A priest
named Timothy, who is by some believed to be the bishop's
son, was absent when Dionysius left his house ; on return-
ing there towards evening, he found the place occupied by
soldiers, and learnt that the prelate had been sent to
Taposiris. After hearing these tidings, he took the road
to Mareotis, and the anguish that he felt was sufficiently
displayed in his countenance. A countryman, whom he
met, inquired the cause of his agitation. On learning
the misfortune that had befallen Dionysius, the man,
then going to a nuptial feast, at that time carried on
through the whole night, hastened to the house where the
banquet was prepared, and stated the circumstance to the
assembled guests. They arose as one man, laid hands on
what they could find as instruments of defence, and
assaulted the house where the bishop was confined. The
guard took them for banditti, and dispersed. Dionysius,
who had retired to rest, was at first under the same mi;*-
take, and pointing to his clothes, bade them take all he
had, and begone. When he discovered their real design^
and perceived that they were bent on his liberation, he
refused to stir; and besought them if they were really
willing to do him a service, to rid his guards of any further
trouble, by cutting off his head It was in vain that they
prayed and conjured him to have pity, if not on his own
life, at least on the state of his Church ; he remained
inflexible. They at length had recourse to actual violence ;
and raising him forcibly from his bed, carried him ofL
All those who had been with him followed; he made
choice of tv\-o only, Peter and Caius, to be his companions*

U2 DIONYSIUS

and with them retired into the desert till the violence of
the persecution should have exhausted itself.

It was while he was in the desert of Libya that Dionysius
addressed his exhortation on martyrdom to Origen, of which
work some considerable fragments remain. Dionysius
appears to have returned to Alexandria on the termination
of the Decian persecution, some time in 251. But in 257
another persecution was raised under Valerian : we have
an account of the occurrences of this persecution given us
by Dionysus himself, whose letter is preserved in Eusebius:
as soon as the edict of persecution reached Alexandria,
Dionysius was summoned before ^milianus, Augustal
praefect; "I came," he says, " to ^Emilianus not alone,
but in company with my fellow presbyter Maximus, and
the deacons Faustus, Eusebius, and Chaeremon, together
with a certain one of the brethren who had come from
Rome, -^milianus, however, did not at first say to me,
Hold no assemblies, as this was superfluous, and was the
last thing to one who was aiming at what was the first in
importance ; for he was not concerned about my collecting
others, but that we should not be Christians, and from
this he commanded me to desist, thinking, no doubt,
that if I changed, others would follow my example. But
I answered him not without good reason, and without
many words, 'We must obey God rather than man.' I
directly bore witness, that I could neither renounce the
exclusive worship of the only true God, nor ever cease to
be a Christian. Upon this he commanded us to go away
?o a neighbouring village of the desert, called Cephro.

" But hear the words that were uttered by both of us,
as they were recorded. Dionysius and Faustus, Maximus,
Marcellus, and Chseremon, being arraigned, ^milianus,
the prefect, said : ' I have even personally reasoned with
you on the clemency of our sovereigns, which you have
also experienced. For they have given you the chance of
saving yourselves, if you are disposed to turn to the course
of nature, and worship the gods that have preserved them
in their government, and to forget those practices which

DIONYSIUS, 443

are so unnatural (rwv Trapa <pv<nv). What, then, say ye to
these things ? For neither do I expect that you will be
ungrateful for their kindness, since they would dispose
you to a better cause.' Dionysius answered, 'All the
gods are not worshipped by all, but each worships whom
he thinks to be gods. We, therefore, worship the one
God and Creator of all things, and the very same that has
comfnitted the government to their most excellent and
sacred majesties. Valerian and Gallienus. Him we wor-
ship and adore, and to Him we incessantly pray that their
reign may continue firm and unshaken.' ^iEmilianus, the
prefect, again replied : ' But who prevents you from wor-
shipping this one God, if he be a god, together with those
that are the natural gods ? For you are commanded to
worship the gods, and those gods which all know to be
such.' Dionysius answered: 'We worship no other one.'
^milianus, the prefect, said, ' I perceive that you are at
the same time ungrateful, and insensible to the clemency
of our Csesars. Therefore you shall not remain in this
city, but you shall be sent to the parts of Lybia, to a place
called Cephro. For this place I have selected according
to the orders of our Caesars. But neither you, nor any
others, shall in any wise be permitted, either to hold con-
ventions, or to enter what you call your cemeteries. But
if any one appear not to have gone to the place which I
have commanded, or if he shall be found in any assembly,
he will do it at his peril. For the necessary punishment
will not fail. Remove, therefore, whither ye are com-
manded.' Thus he compelled me, sick as I was, nor did
he grant me a day's respite."

Cephro, the place to which Dionysius was banished, lay
in the wilds of Libya. A large body of Christians accom-
panied him thither ; some from Alexandria, others from
various other parts of Egypt. The Gospel had not
hitherto been preached in this place ; and there, to use
the patriarch's own words, the Lord opened a great door
for the Word. For though the little band of believers
were reviled and exposed to personal violence, before long

444 DIONYSIUS.

a large number of the heathen left the worship of idols,
and gave their names to Christ. God had evidently led
His servants to that place, to be the founders of a flourish-
ing Church ; and when that ministry was fulfilled, He
conducted them to another spot.

^milianus, hearing of the progress that the faith was
making at Cephro, gave orders that Dionysius should be
removed to Coluthion, a city of Mareotis. The bishop
confesses that he was much annoyed on receiving this
intimation, the place was infested by robbers, and ten-
anted by a wild race. His friends, however, represented
that it was nearer to Alexandria ; that if at Cephro the
resort of Christians had been great, the inhabitants of the
metropolis would flock to Coluthion as a suburb ; that the
change was evidently designed, by the Head of the Church,
for its good. And so it fell out.

While Dionysius was thus enacting the part of a brave
and vigilant pastor, and towards the end of the persecution,
he was exposed to considerable annoyance by Germanus,
an Egyptian bishop, though it is uncertain in what see.
Germanus accused the patriarch of general carelessness
and remissness in his pastoral duties, but more especially
of neglecting, during the time of his exile, to assemble
for worship the Christians who were with him. Dionysius
replied by the letter, to which we are indebted for the
particulars which have reached us of his behaviour, during
both the persecution of Decius and that of Valerian.

At the same time, he was engaged in writing other
letters, both regarding his own Church, and that of other
countries. He was in correspondence with Sixtus on
the baptismal question : we find him also addressing the
presbytery of the Alexandrian Church, during the greatest
violence of the persecution. Two other letters, respectively
addressed to Flavian, and to Didymus and Domitius,
require a few observations.

They were paschal letters, and, as it is supposed by
some, the first of their kind.

DIONYSIUS. 445

How long this banishment lasted, is not absolutely
certain. Tilleraont says, it is evident that Dionysius
continued in this exile about two years at least, because
in that time he wrote two festal epistles, concerning the
observation of Easter, as Eusebius relates. One of those
epistles was directed to Flavius, the other to Domitius and
Didymus. We would just observe, that in the same place
Eusebius adds : " Besides these, Dionysius wrote another
letter to his fellow-presbyters of Alexandria, and other
letters to divers other persons, the persecution still raging."
Pagi has taken notice of several of the letters written at
that time. Basnage computes Dionjsius s exile to have
lasted four years, supposing him to have been banished in
257 ; as does Pagi : but Lardner does not see any proof of
so long a continuance of that exile ; though it might be
full three years, or somewhat more.

In the year 261, if not before, Dionysius returned to
his people at Alexandria, and ofiQciated again among them,
to their great satisfaction and profit. But, as Eusebius
observes, the peace was of short duration at Alexandria ;
for that city was again afflicted with sedition and war, and
then with pestilence.

In the various controversies of the time, Dionysius
of necessity took a prominent part. He sided against
Novatus in the schism which the latter excited in the
Church of Rome, and his letter to the schismatic, as pre-
served by Eusebius, is as follows : " Dionysius sends
greeting to his brother Novatus. If, as you say, you were
forced against your will, you will show it by retiring
voluntarily. For it was a duty to suffer any thing rather
than to afflict the Church of God ; and, indeed, it would
not be more inglorious to suffer even martyrdom for its
sake, than to sacrifice ; and in my opinion it would have
been a greater glory. For there, in the one case, the
individual gives a testimony for his own soul, but in the
other he bears witness for the whole Church. And now,
if thou persuade or constrain the brethren to return to

VOL. IV 2 u

446 DIONYSIUS.

unanimity, thy uprightness will be greater than thy delu-
sion, and the latter will not be laid to thy charge, but the
other will be applauded ; but if thou art unable to prevail
with thy friends, save thy own soul. With the hope that
thou art desirous of peace in the Lord, I bid thee farewell."
Such was the epistle of Dionysius to Novatus.

According to St. Jerome, and, as it appears from Euse-
bius, Dionysius coincided in opinion with St. Cyprian and
the African synod against the Bishop of Rome on the
controversy with respect to the baptism of heretics. But
he was a moderate man, and did not express himself
strongly on the subject. His moderation was also shewn
in a controversy on the subject of the Millenium, which
gave rise to his two works on the promises ; the occasion
of his writing these, says Eusebius, arose from Nepos, a
bishop in Egypt, having taught, that the promises given
to holy men in the Scriptures, should be understood more
as tlie Jews understood them, and supposed that there
would be a certain millenium of sensual luxury on this
earth. Thinking, therefore, that he could establish his
own opinion by the Revelation of John, he composed a
book on this subject, with the title, Refutation of the
Allegorists. This, therefore, was warmly opposed by
Dionysius, in his work on the promises.

He speaks with kindness and respect of Nepos, and
remarks further, " When I was at Arsinoe, where, as you
know, long since, this doctrine was afloat, so that schisms
and apostacies of whole Churches followed, after I had
called the presbyters and teachers of the brethren in the
villages, when those brethren had come who wished to be
present, I exhorted them to examine the doctrine publicly.
When they had produced this book as a kind of armour
and impregnable fortress, I sat with them for three days,
from morning till evening, attempting to refute what it
contained. Then also I was greatly pleased to observe
tbo constancy, the sincerity, the docility, and intelligence
oi' the brethren, so moderately and methodically did we

DIONYSIUS. 447

propose our questions and doubts and concessions, for we
carefully and studiously avoided, in every possible way,
insisting upon those opinions [which might be offensive]
though they might once be maintained by us and seem
correct. Nor did we attempt to evade objections, but
endeavoured as far as possible to keep to our subject, and
to confirm these. Nor ashamed if reason prevailed, to
change opinions, and to acknowledge the truth ; but rather
received with a good conscience and sincerity, and with
single hearts, before God, whatever was established by the
proofs and doctrines of the holy Scriptures. At length
Coracio, who was the founder and leader of this doctrine,
in the hearing of all the brethren present, confessed and
avowed to us, that he would no longer adhere to it, nor
discuss it, that he would neither mention nor teach it, as
he had been fully convinced by the opposite arguments.
The other brethren present rejoiced also at this con-
ference, and at the conciliatory spirit and unanimity
exhibited by all.

In opposing Sabellianism, Dionysius exposed himself to
the charge of a want of caution. Sabellius having started
the heresy which bears his name, and being bishop or
presbyter in Pentapolis, Dionysius, as primate, gave his
judgment against him in writing. He was led, of coui-se,
by his argument, to defend the distinction of Persons in
the Father and the Son. Among several irreprehensible
similitudes, he employed these, that were not suitable, —
that the Son is different from the Father, as the vine is
from the husbandman, or as the ship is from its architect.
As he also adopted an equivocal expression, calling the
Son a creature {'itoi-n^a) of the Father, this expression,
together with the above similitudes, seemed to contain
a sense which placed the Son in the class of beings
created, and which destroyed His consubstantiality with
the Father.

Dionysius being attacked for these expressions, which,
unguarded, are certainly objectionable, a council was held

448 DIONYSIUS.

at Rome about a. d. 260, to examine into the state of the
case. Dionysius of Rome presided, and Dionysius of
Alexandria lost no time in defending himself. He wrote
immediately to his namesake of Rome, and in his letter,
and in an apology in four books published soon after, he
fully made known his faith in the Holy Trinity, and
proved it to be in perfect accordance with the faith of the
Catholic Church. He said, that he had now cast away
the similitudes of the vine and the ship, which, indeed,
might have been explained by the context, and had in
their place substituted others, of the plant springing from
the root, and of the stream flowing from the fountain.
His explanation of the Divine economy, or of the relation
between the Father and the Son, is in substance the
following : — The Son has His being from the Father, but
is eternal with Him, as the splendour of eternal light, as
the brilliancy of the sun, is inseparable from it, and simul-
taneous with it. There never was a period in which
God was not Father. The Son is, therefore, not a crea-
ture, except in His human nature ; He is the Son of God,
not by adoption, but by nature, and as the Father and
the Son are indivisible from each other, so the Holy
Ghost is inseparable from the Father and the Son. "Thus
do we extend the unity into the Trinity, and confine
the Trinity undiminished within the unity." Dionysius
remarks that he had not used the word consubstantial,
(oju,oouo-io?) as it was nowhere found in the Scripture, but
that he had always professed the doctrine contained in
that word, and had by many arguments, as by the example
of human generation, proved that the Son was one sub-
stance with the Father.

However, in spite of his explanations, some later writers,
and even Basil himself, do not scruple to complain of
Dionysius, as having sown the first seeds of Arianism ;
confessing at the same time, that his error was accidental,
occasioned by his vehement opposition to the Sabellian
heresy ; not so however our own Bishop Bull, who, speak-
ing of Dionysius says, " This was one of those heads of

DIONYSIUS. 449

doctrines, which his adversaries objected against him
before Dionysius Romanus : ' God was not always a
Father, the Son was not always, but God was sometime
without a Logos. The Son Himself was not before He
was born, or made, but there was a time when He was
not. For He was not eternal, but was made afterwards.'
Athanasius expressly saith, that Dionysius defended him-
self from these accusations. Now it appears from this
accusation, that the proposition, there was a time when
the Son was not, was by the Catholics held to be heterodox
and absurd in the times of Dionysius. But how does
Dionysius defend himself ? By owning the charge? No.
He professes that he did from his heart acknowledge, arni
always had acknowledged the co-eternity of the Son. For
in the first book of his refutation and apology, he says.
There was not a time when God was not a Father. And
some time after he writes thus concerning the Son of
God : ' Since He is the effulgence of the eternal light.
He Himself is altogether eternal ; for since the light is
always, the effulgence it is manifest must also be always.'
Again : ' God is an eternal light, without beginning or
end ; therefore an eternal effulgence is projected by Him,
co-exists with Him without beginning, and always born.'
And again : ' The Son alone is always co existent with
the Father, and is filled with the existent Being, and is
Himself existent from the Father.' There are places
parallel to these in the epistle of Dionysius, which is now
extant, to Paulus Samosatenus, and in his answer to
Paul's questions set after the epistle. In the epistle he
writes thus of Christ ; ' There is one Christ, Who is in
the Father, the co-eternal Word.' In his answers he
thus introduces Christ speaking from the prophet Jeremy :
' I who alway am the Christ subsisting personally, equal
to the Father, in that I differ nothing from Him in sub-
stance, co-eternal also with the Almghty Spirit.' Here
he confesses the entire, co-eval, co-eternal Trinity of
Persons. The same Dionysius blames Paul, because he
2u 2

450 DIONYSIUS.

would not call Christ the co-eternal character of God the
Father's Person. And in the same place he thus declares
the eternity of the Son : ' As then we perceive, when one
takes from one of our material fires, and neither affects,
nor divides it in the kindling one light from another, but
the fire remains ; so incomprehensibly is the eternal
generation of Christ from the Father.' Lastly, that this
was his constant opinion, which he always held, every
where preached and professed, he affirms in these words :
' I have written, do write, confess, believe and preach,
that Christ is co-eternal with the Father, the only-begotten
Son, and Word of the Father.' Let Sandius brazen his
forehead, and boast still that the great Dionysius Alexan-
drinus was of Arius's mind."

It was at the close of Dionysius's life, that the council
was convoked at Antioch to condemn the heresy of Paul
of Samosata, and to the fathers of the council Dionysius
sent an epistle, in which he asserts, according to Bishop
Bull, the true Divinity of the Son of God. Dionysius
died in February, 265.

The loss of the writings of Dionysius, as Mr Neale
justly remarks, is one of the greatest that has been suf-
fered by Ecclesiastical history. Besides those that we
have noticed, fragments of a commentary on Ecclesi-
astes, and of a treatise against the Epicureans, on Na-
ture, remain to us ; besides an Epistle to Basileides,
which is received by the Oriental Church into its body of
canons. Basileides, a bishop in Pentapolis, had asked
Dionysius at what hour the Lent fast ended. At Rome,
it appears, it did not conclude till cock-crow on Easter
morning ; in Egypt it finished on the evening of Satur-
day. The patriarch observes, that to fix the time exactly
w^as impossible ; that those are to be commended who keep
vigil till the fourth watch, while they are not to be blamed
who are compelled, by the weakness of their bodies, to
repose themselves earlier ; that the fast, however, was not
at an end till Saturday midnight. He observes that some

DIONYSIUS. 451

passed six days of Holy Week without eating, some four,
some three, some two, some not one ; and while he lays
down no specific rule, that he disapproves the conduct of
those who make good cheer on the first four days, and
think to compensate it by a strict fast on the Friday and
Saturday. This canon exemplifies the wonderful rigour
of these earlier ages, both in making mention of some who
abstained from food during the whole week, and in simply
not imputing it as a fault, if any, compelled by weakness,
ate daily. The second and fourth canons concern physical
reasons for abstaining from the Holy Communion, and
the third is on nuptial continence.

The great humility of Dionysius is conspicuous in the
end of this epistle. You have not consulted me, says he,
through ignorance, but to do me honour, and maintain
peace ; you will judge my obsei-vations for yourself, and
let me know your decision. We may remark, as an in-
stance of the extraordinary power of the see of Alexandria,
that Dionysius, though writing to a bishop, addresses him
by the title of son, — an appellation not used in the like
sense, even by Rome. — EuseUus. Cave. Bull. Dolllnger.
Tillemont. Lardner. Neale.

"DIONYSIUS.

Dionysius of Rome was, first, presbyter, and afterwards
Bishop of Rome. His predecessor Xystus, or Sixtus the
Second, suffered martyrdom on the 6th of August, 25 8^
when it is generally supposed that the see remained vacant
for one year, and that Dionysius was not consecrated till
the 22nd of July, 259.

While he was a presbyter he wrote to his namesake of
Alexandria upon the question of the baptism of heretics.
When the synod of Rome gave their opinion upon the
merits of the controversy between Dionysius of Alexandria,
fSee his Life) and the Sabellians, Dionysius of Rome
presided, at which, says Bower, Baronius exults.

452 DIONYSIUS.

*' Behold, says he, one of the most eminent prelates
of the Church, upon suspicion of heresy, arraigned at
Rome, judged at Rome. Who does not see a supreme
tribunal erected there, to which all causes must be
brought ; a sovereign judge residing there, by whom all
persons must be absolved or condemned ; is either blind
and cannot see, or shuts his eyes and will not see. And
does not the sharp-sighted annalist himself see what every
one the least conversant in ecclesiastical history must see,
if he is not either blind and cannot, or shuts his eyes and
will not see, viz., bishops, when guilty, or only suspected
of heresy, accused to some of their colleagues, who neither
had, nor claimed, any jurisdiction over them? Thus was
the famous Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, at this
very time accused by his whole Church, first to Dionysius
Bishop of Alexandria, and soon after to Firmilian Bishop
of Caesarea. That such an accusation argued any juris-
diction in those bishops over the Bishop of Antioch, is
what Baronius himself dares not affrm ; and yet a like
accusation brought to Rome is enough for him to transform
that see into a supreme tribunal ; that bishop, though far
from such ambitious thoughts, into a sovereign judge.
But the Bishop of Rome, says Baronius, required of
Dionysius a confession or declaration of his faith : and
does not that argue supei'iority and jurisdiction ? Baronius
hiDiself knew it does not : for it is impossible he should
not know, that when a bishop was suspected of heresy, all
his colleagues had a right to require of him a confession
of his faith, and not to communicate with him till they
had received it." He died December, 26th, 269. — Eusehius.
Cave. Lardner. Bower.

DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS.

Dionysius, surnamed Exiguus, was born in Scythia,
and flourished, a monk by profession, till the year 540.
His acquaintance with Scripture was accurate, and his
learning in the Greek and Latin languages profound.

DISNEY. 458

Cassiodorus, who was intimate with him, wrote his pane-
gyric in the 23rd chapter of his book on divine learning.
He was a vehement and unscrupulous upholder of the see
of Home ; he is suspected to have been guilty even of
forgery in its support ; he first published, and very pro-
bably wrote the Canons of the Council of Sardica, and col-
lected the Papal Decretals from Siricius to Anastasius II.
These were published with his Collection of Canons, made
at the request of Stephen Bishop of Salome.

Dionysius was the first who introduced the way of
counting the years from the birth of Jesus Christ, and
who fixed it according to the epocha of the vulgar sera.
He wrote also two letters upon Easter in the years 525
and 526, which were published by Petavius and Bucherius ;
and made a cycle of 95 years. Father Mabillon published
a letter of his written to Eugippius, about the translation
which he made of a work of Gregory Nyssen, concerning
the creation of man. — Dupin. Geddes.

DISNEY.

John Disney was born in 1677 at Lincoln. He entered
at the Middle Temple, where he studied the law, but did
not follow it as a profession. At the age of forty-two he was
ordained, and presented to the vicarage of Croft, and the
rectory of Kirkby-super-Baine, both in Lincolnshire. He
was a zealous advocate for religious societies, then in their
infancy, particularly for the Society for the Reformation
of manners. In 1722 he obtained the living of St. Mary,
Nottingham, where he died in 1730. He wrote, — 1. Pri-
mitiae Sacrae, the reflections of a devout solitude, 8vo.
2. Flora, prefixed to a translation of Rapin's poem on
Gardens, 8vo. 3. Two Essays upon the Execution of the
Laws against Immorality and Profaneness, 8vo. 4. Re-
marks upon a Sermon preached by Dr. Sacheverell. 5. The
Genealogy of the House of Brunswick Lunenburg. 6. A
View of ancient Laws against Immorality and Profaneness,
folio. 7. Sermons on particular Occasions. — Biog. Brit.

454 DITHMAR.

DITHMAR, DITMAB, OR DIETHUMAR.

DiTHMAR was the son of Sigefroy Count of Saxony, and
was born in the year 976. In his eighteenth or twentieth
year he embraced the monastic life; and in 1018 was
made Bishop of Mersburg by the Emperor Henry 11. He
wrote a Latin Chronicle, in seven books, containing the
history of the Emperors Henry I., Otho, I., II., III., and
Henry II. It is accounted a very faithful narrative, and
has been often reprinted. The best edition is that of
Leibnitz. He died in 1028. — Moreri. Dupin.

DITHMAR, JUSTUS CHRISTOPHER.

Justus Christopher Dithmer was born in 1677, at
Rottenburg in Hesse. After studying at the university of
Marpurg, to which he was sent in his 17th year, where
he applied himself to theology, and studied the Oriental
languages under the celebrated Otho, he removed to Ley-
den, where he was supported by the Landgrave of Hesse
Cassel, and afterwards settled at Frankfort on the Oder,
first as professor of history, then of the law of nature, and
finally of statistics and finance. He was made a member
of the Royal Society of Berlin, and a counsellor of the
Order of St. John. He died at Frankfort in 1737. His
works are, — Maimonidis Constit. de Jurejurando, with
notes and additions, Leyden, 4to ; Gregorii VII. Pont.
Romani Vita, Frankfort, 8vo ; Historia Belli inter Impe-
rium et Sacerdotium, ibid, 8vo ; Teschenmacheri Annales
Cliviae, &c. Notis, Tabulis genealogicis et Codice diploma-
tico illustrati, ibid, foho ; Summa Capita Antiq. Judaica-
rum et Romanarum in usum Prselectionum privatarum,
ibid, 4to ; Chytraei Marchia Brandenburgensis ad nostra
Tempera continuata, ibid, 8vo ; Deliueatio historise Bran-
denburgensis in privatis Pr-celectionibus prolixius illus-
tranda, ibid, 8vo ; Delineatio historiae prsecipuorum Juris,
aut praetensium Statibus EuropsB competentium in Col-

DOD. 455

legio private magis illustranda, ihid; C. Com. Taciti Ger-
raania, cum perpetuo et pragmatico Commentario, ihid,
8vo ; Dissertatio de Abdicatione Regnorum, aliarumque
Dignitatura illustrium tarn Secularium quam Ecclesias-
ticsirum, ibid, 1724, 4to; Commentatio de honoratissimo
Ordine Militari de Balneo, ibid, 1729, folio; an edition of
the History of the Order of St. John, by Becman, in Ger-
man, 4to; Introduction to the Knowledge of Finance,
Police, &c., also in German, 8vo. — Moreri. Chanfepie.

DOD, JOHN.

John Dod was born in 1547, and educated at West-
chester. In 1561 he went to Jesus College, Cambridge,
of which college he became a fellow in 1585. He
was a pious, but not a strong minded person, and was
hurried by the movement of the Reformation into an ex-
treme. A movement in the Church, such as that to which
allusion is made, unsettles men's minds for the time ; and
we are not to expect every one calmly to subside at once
into the via media. On Dod's mind the horrors of the
Marian Persecution, as we may gather from several ex-
pressions in his works, made a fearful impression, and he
felt that the Church could not be too far removed from
Rome. To many of the ceremonies and to the discipline
of the Church he had a great repugnance, and attach-
ed himself to the older and better class of religious
Puritans. On taking orders he officiated, probably as
curate, at Hanwell in Oxfordshire, w'here he was a popu-
lar preacher, and on Sundays and Wednesdays, when he
lectured, entertained generally eight or ten persons at din-
ner. He remained here twenty years ; but for his non-
conformity he was at last suspended by Dr. Bridges, Lord
Bishop of Oxford. He afterwards preached at Fenny
Campton in Warwickshire, and at Canons Ashby in
Northamptonshire. Here he was silenced again ; and
since sentence was pronounced upon him by Archbishop

456 DOD.

Abbot, whose principles would accord with his own,
though he could not atford to maintain them at the risk of
losing his preferments, the non-conformity of Dod must
have been very marked. Archbishop Abbot was compelled
by King James to interfere. During his suspension he
published also his Commentary on the Decalogue. In
conjunction with one Robert Cleaver he published also an
Exposition of some chapters of the Book of Proverbs.
Who this Cleaver was is not known to the writer of this
article, but the same two authors published also ten ser-
mons on the Worthy receiving of the Lord s Supper.
The following extracts will shew how differently an ancient
Puritan would speak on this subject, from a modern dis-
senter, or even than some modern churchmen.

1. *' The commandment is contained in those words,
Take, eat, take the bread, and take My Body : eat the
bread, and eat My Body : take and eat the bread corpo-
rally and by sense ; take and eat Christ spiritually, and
by faith. And the like commandment is here implied,
and elsewhere expressed concerning the cup, that is, the
wine in the cup, (drink ye all of this) which they are said
here to obey.

2. " The promise is implied in these words : This is My
Body, this is My Blood ; that is, lively signs to signify,
and effectual instruments to convey Myself, and all the
benefits of My death and passion unto you.

"Christ Jesus in the Lord s Supper, by corporal food doth
give us a most sure possession of Himself, and near union
with Himself. The bread and wine are not only pledges
of what shall be bestowed upon us, but effectual means to
exhibit the things promised unto us : and therefore Christ
useth these words : Take, eat, this is My Body, which is
given for you, which is broken for you : and so of the
wine : Drink ye all of it, this is My Blood which is shed
for you. Now what can be nearer unto us than our meat
and drink ? We have greater interest in nothing than in
our food ; for that is made a part of ourselves. If we eat
meat in another man's house, after we have received it, it

DOD. 457

is more ours than his that prepared it ; no one joint
is so near another, nor the soul so near the body, as
our food is near us when once it is digested and
turned into nourishment unto us : which doth plainly
represent unto us the near conjunction that is between
Christ and every worthy receiver. Hence proceedeth
that speech of the x\postle : The cup of blessing which
we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the Body of Christ ? that is, do not these cause us to
have an effectual communion with Him in all His graci-
ous merits ?'

He seems to have overcome his scruples so far as to
have been able to accept the living of Fawesley, in North-
amptonshire, to which he was presented in 1(324. Al-
though a Puritan he still believed his Bible, and was there-
fore opposed to the proceedings of the Republicans ; and
it ought to be recorded to his honour, that when the Re-
publicans and Independents vainly attempted to abolish
God's ordinance of Episcopacy, and Dr. Brownrig sent to
Mr. Dod for his opinion ; his answer was, that " he had
been scandalized by the proud and tyrannical practices
of the Marian Bishops ; but now, after sixty years' experi-
ence of many protestant Bishops that had been worthy
preachers, learned and orthodox writers, great champions
for the protestant cause, he wished all his friends not to
be an impediment to them, and exhorted all men not to
take up arms against the King ; which his doctrine, he
said, was founded upon the Fifth Commandment, and he
would never depart from it." He died in 16i5.

Fuller says, "with him the Old Puritan seemed to
expire, and in his grave to be interred. Humble, meek,
patient, charitable as in his censures of, so in his alms to
others. Would I could truly say but half so much of the
next generation !" — Clark's Lives of Eminent Divines. Ful-
lers Worthies. Dod and Cleavers Sermons.

VOL. IV. 2x

J 5 DODD.

DODD, CHARLES.

All that is known of this distinguished writer is the
fact that he was a clergyman of the Romish communion in
England, and resided at Harvington, in Worcestershire,
an old seat of the Throgmorton family, where he died
about the year 1745. This account is given us by the
Rev. Joseph Berington, an eminent Romish divine, in
the last century. It occurs in the Preface to Berington s
Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani. Both to Berington and
Dodd frequent reference has been made in these volumes,
when treating of biographies involving points of history
relating to the Romanists in England. Dodd's principal
work is his Church History of England, from 1500 to
1688, principally with reference to the Roman Catholics.
It has lately been republished by Dr. Tierney. It is an
ill arranged book, but useful for the documents it supplies.
It caused much controversy among the Romanists when
it was first published. Berington's character of the work
will be interesting to the reader ; and, as his Memoirs of
Panzani are not of easy access, it is here given. It con-
tains much curious matter, collected with great assiduity,
and many original records. His style, when the subject
admits expression, is pure and unimcumbered, his narra-
tion easy, his reflections just and liberal. I have seldom
known a writer, and that writer a churchman, so free
from prejudice and the degrading impressions of party-
zeal. But I am not sure that his materials are well
arranged. Indeed he was himself, for a long time, so dis-
satisfied, as, with his own hand, to copy a work so volumin-
ous into two or three different forms. I think I have seen
three. There are many repetitions which might have
been avoided ; but its main defect is the want of a copious
index. Of this I have had a painful experience.

The history, of which I am speaking, for many years
was little known; but it has at length found its way into
the libraries of the curious, and no copies have remained

DODD. 450

unsold. The reader will see what use I have made of it
in the following pages; and I readily acknowledge my
obligations.

Not long after the appearance of the two first volumes,
a petulant and captious critique, under the title of A Spe-
cimen of Amendments, was published by Clerophilus

Alethes, that is, Constable, a Jesuit, in 1740. It

is extremely peevish, and malevolent as peevish, and weak
as malevolent. He rebukes the clergyman principally for
his commissions and omissions in regard to the fathers of
the society. Them, he more than intimates, he should
have never blamed ; he should have loaded his page from
the pleasant histories of fathers More, Bartoli, and
Juvency, with the edifying and wonderful, sometimes
miraculous, events of their births, lives, and burials.
With such materials as these, he observes, he might have
compiled a history truly worthy of the notice of a Christian
reader !

Dodd, whose mind it appears was irritable, was not
pleased, as I think he might have been, with this ludi-
crous attack. He was aware that the cant of piety, and
certain insinuations breathed with unction, might at once,
in the estimation of a misjudging public, blast his charac-
ter and all the fruits of his thirty years' labour. He,
therefore, in 1741, replied to Constable, in a work entitled
An Apology for the Church History of England. It is
written with uncommon acute ness, keen discrimination,
a brevity that impresses, and a ridicule that cuts. I only
lament that his conscious superiority should have some-
times descended to asperities of language, and recrimin-
ating taunts, which prove that he did not sufficiently
despise his adversary. The generous mastiff indignantly
passes on, heedless of the curs that aim to annoy and
teaze him.

Other works have been ascribed to Mr. Dodd, of which
I believe he was the author, written too acrimoniously
against the insidious conduct, as he deemed it, of the
Jesuits in their transactions with the secular clergy. He

460 DODD.

has also left behind him a variety of papers, some com-
plete, some imperfect, on different subjects, all written
with his own hand. Few men have been more inde-
fatigable in research, and patient of that toil that wearies
most in the walks of literature, — Beringtons Memoirs, of
Gregorio Panzani.

DODD, WILLIAM.

It is necessary to notice this man, because he was the
author of several works above contempt, and was for some
time one of the most popular preachers in London, having
adopted the methodistical style, and being regarded by
many as a man of decided piety. He was born in 1729,
at Bourne in Lincolnshire, and was admitted as a sizer at
Clare- Hall in Cambridge in 1745, where he distinguished
himself by his talents. In 1747 he distinguished himself
by the publication of little pieces of poetry : and this was
followed by other publications evincing talent and taste ;
among others. The Beauties of Shakspeare. In 1753 he
was ordained, and settled in London, where his eloquence,
as we have before stated, made him the most popular
preacher of the day. The following is an extract from
Jones of Nayland's Life of Bishop Home.

I am now to conclude with a character, which I intro-
duce with some reluctance ; but it is too remarkable to be
omitted in an account of Mr. Home's literary connec-
tions ; and some useful moral attends it in every circum-
stance : the character I mean is that of the late Mr. Dodd.
Humanity should speak as tenderly of him as truth
will permit, in consideration of his severe and lamentable
fate.

A similitude in their studies and their principles pro-
duced an acquaintance between Mr. Home and Mr. Dodd :
for when Mr. Dodd began the world, he was a zealous
favourer of Hebrew learning, and distinguished himself as

DODD. 401

a preacher ; in which capacity he undoubtedly excelled to
a certain degree, and in his time did much good. After
Mr. Dodd had been noticed in the university of Cam-
bridge for some of his exercises, he made himself known
to the public by an English poetical translation of Cal-
limachus, in which he discovered a poetical genius. Of
the Preface to the translation of Callimachus, which gives
the best general account, that was ever given in so short a
compass, of the Heathen Mythology, the greater part was
written for him by Mr. Home. It is supposed, with good
reason, that Mr. Dodd was obliged to others of his friends
for several useful notes on the text of Callimachus. He
makes a particular acknowledgment to the Rev. Mr. Park-
hurst, " from whose sound judgment, enlarged under-
standing, unwearied application, and generous openness of
heart, the world has great and valuable fruits to expect."
Archbishop Seeker conceived a favourable opinion of Mr.
Dodd, from his performances in the pulpit ; and it was
probably owing to the influence of the Archbishop that he
was appointed to preach the sermons at Lady Moyer's
Lectures. But this unhappy gentleman, having a strong
desire, like many other young men of parts, to make a
figure in the world, with a turn to an expensive way of
living ; and findiug that his friends, who unhappily were
suffering under the damnatory title of Hutchinsonians,
would never be permitted (as the report then was) to rise
to any eminence in the church ; Mr. Dodd thought it
more prudent to leave them to their fate, with the hope of
succeeding better in some other way : and to purge him-
self in the eye of the world, he wrote expressly against
them ; laying many grievous things to their charge : some
of which were true, when applied to particular persons ;
some greatly exaggerated; and some utterly false; as it may
well be imagined, when it is considered that the author
was writing to serve an interest.

There could be no better judge than Mr. Dodd himself
of the motives on which he had assumed a new character.
•2x 2

463 DODD.

He certainly did himself some good, in the opinion of
those who thought he was grown wiser : but being sen-
sible how far he had carried some things, and how much
he had lost himself, in the esteem of his old friends, he
was anxious to know what some of them said about him.
He therefore applied himself one day to a lady of great
understanding and piety, who knew him well, and who
also knew most of them ; desiring her to tell him what
Mr. such an one said of him ? He says of you, answered
she — Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world:
with which he appeared to be much affected. Not that
the thing had actually been said, so far as I know, by the
person in question ; but she, knowiog the propriety with
which it might have been said, gave him the credit of it.
There was a general appearance of vanity about Mr. Dodd,
which was particularly disgusting to Mr. Home, who had
none of it himself; and the levity, with which he had
totally cast off his former studies, being added to it, both
together determined him to drop the acquaintance with
little hesitation. He not only avoided his company, but
conceiviug a -dislike as well to his moral as to his literary
character, is supposed to have given such an account of
him in one of the public papers as made him very ridicu-
lous, under the name of Tom Dingle. Not long afterwards
Mr. Foote brought him upon the stage for a transaction
which reflected great dishonour upon a clergyman, and
for which the King ordered him to be struck off tlie list
of his chaplains.

The revolt of Mr. Dodd, if he meant to raise himself in
the world by it, did by no means answer his purpose. It
brought him into favour with Lord Chesterfield ; but that
did much more hurt to his mind than good to his for-
tune. The farther he advanced in life, the more he be-
came embarrassed : and his moral conduct was commonly
known to be so far depraved, that a late celebrated gentle-
man of Clapham, who was privy to it, is said to have
predicted some years before, that he would come to an

DODD. 463

untimely end. How unsearchable are the wisdom and
justice of Divine Providence ! The worldly policy of
Dr. Dodd lost him the friendship of some wise and good
men, particularly of Mr. Home, but procured for him the
favour of Lord Chesterfield ; and that favour tempted him
to another step of policy, which brought him to his death.
The memory of Dr. Johnson is much to be honoured for
the tender part he took in behalf of Dr. Dodd during the
time of his affliction. And let it be remembered, in jus-
tice to his former friends, that few persons were more
deeply affected by his lamentable end than some of those
who had been under the necessity of dropping his acquaint-
ance. I have it on the best authority, that one of them
kept a solemn fast till night on the day of his execution,
and afterwards moralized very seriously upon his fate in
one of the newspapers of the time.

Having disgusted his patrons by his ill disguised and
overdone flattery, and having still more disgusted all
seriously disposed persons by his extravagance and luxury,
he nevertheless still remained a popular preacher, until
having offered a bribe of three thousand pounds to Lord
Chancellor Apsley's lady if she would obtain for him the
living of St. George's, Hanover Squai'e, he was exposed
and disgraced, and compelled to live abroad. In the
suaimer of 1776 he went to France ; and, with incredible
folly, appeared in a phaeton at the races at Sablons, near
Paris, tricked out in all the foppery of French attire. He
returned at the beginning of winter, and proceeded to
exercise his clerical functions with the same formality and
affected earnestness, and wiih the same popularity as
before, particularly at the Magdalen chapel, where he
preached his last sermon, February 2nd, 1777. Two days
after this he signed a bond, which he had forged as from
his pupil Lord Chesterfield, for the sum of £4200, and,
upon the credit of it, obtained a considerable sum of
money ; but detection instantly followed, he was committed
to prison, tried and convicted at the Old Bailey, on the

464 DODD.

24th of February, and was executed at Tyburn, on the
27th of June. Besides the works ah'eady mentioned, he
pubUshed an Elegy on the Death of the Prince of Wales,
4to, 1751; Thoughts on the Glorious Epiphany of our
Lord Jesus Christ, a poetical Essay, 4to, 1758; Sermons
on the Parables and Miracles, 4 vols, 8vo, in the same
year ; Account of the Piise, Progress, &c., of the Magdalen
Charity, Bvo, 1759; A Familiar Explanation of the Poetical
Works of Milton, 12mo, 1762; Reflections on Death,
12mo, 1763; Comfort for the Afflicted, Bvo, 1764; The
Visitor, 2 vols, 12mo in the same year; A new edition of
Mr. Locke's Commonplace Book to the Bible, 4to, 1766 ;
a volume of Poems, Bvo, 1767 ; Sermons on the Duties of
the Great, translated from the French of Masillon, Bvo,
1769 ; A Commentary on the Bible, 3 vols, folio, published
in weekly and monthly numbers, commenced in 1765, and
completed in 1770. In order to give greater eclat to this
undertaking, it was announced that Lord Masham had
presented him with the MSS. of Mr. Locke, and that
he had helps also from the MSS. of Lord Clarendon,
Dr. Waterland, and other celebrated men. The ability
and sound judgment with which, in the compilation of
this work, Dodd availed himself of the labours of preceding
commentators, foreign as well as British, have rendered
this a very valuable work ; but what is extraordinary with
respect to it is, that it was republished as an original work
by Dr. Coke, the Methodist, with several retrenchments,
but with few, and those unimportant, additions. Dodd's
other publications were Sermons to Young Men, 3 vols,
i2mo, 1771; The Frequency of Capital Punishments
inconsistent with justice, Sound Policy, and Religion, Bvo,
1772; and An Oration at the Dedication of Freemason's
Hall, 4to, 1776. He also left behind him Thoughts in
Prison, &c., which were published after his death, in 12mo,
with Memoirs of his Life prefixed. This wretched man
was married so early as April 1751, even before he was in
orders, or had any certain means of supporting himself;

DODDRIDGE. 4G5

but his wife, by whom he left no child, was, though largely
endowed with personal attractions, deficient in those of
birth and fortune, and was little qualified by habits of
prudence and economy to arrest her husband's ruinous
career. She died in 1784. — Memoirs jyrejixed to Thoughts
in Prison. Heed's Memoirs. Jones of Nayland. Boswells
Johnson.

DODDRIDGE, PHILIP.

Philip Doddridge was born in London, June 26, 1702.
He was educated under Mr. Jennings, at Kibworth, in
Leicestershire ; and in 1722 became minister at that place,
from whence, in 1725, he removed to Market- Harbo rough,
where he opened an academy in 1729. Shortly after this
he settled at Northampton as minister and tutor, and
acquired there great reputation, for his learning and
candour. He published several works, popular among
dissenters, though of course deficient in many essential
points of Christian doctiine ; the principal were his Family
Expositor, 6 vols, 4to. ; the Rise and Progress of Religion
in the Soul, the Life of Colonel Gardiner; and sermons
on the Evidences of Christianity. Intense application to
study brought on a pulmonary complaint for which, after
trying the Bristol waters without eff'ect, he went to Lisbon,
where he died Oct. 26, 1751, and was buried in the ceme-
tery belonging to the British factory. He seems to have
been an amiable, learned, and pious man. As a preacher,
he was much esteemed and very popular ; but his biogra-
phers have had some difficulty in vindicating him from
the charge of accommodating his discourses to congrega-
tions of different sentiments. One of his descendants
published, in 1829-31, a collection of his correspond-
ence and private papers, 5 vols, 8vo. — Ortons Life of
Doddridge.

4 66 DOLBEN.

DOLBEN, JOHN.

John Dolben was born at Stanwick, in Northampton-
shire, of which parish his father was rector, in 1 6 '2 5. He
was educated at Westminster School, and next at Christ-
Church, Oxford ; but in the civil wars he served as an
officer in the royal army and rose to the rank of major.
On the decline of the King's affairs he returned to college,
and took his degrees. In 1656 he was ordained, and, in
conjunction with Dr. Fell and Dr. Allestree, constantly
performed Divine service and administered the Sacraments,
according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, to the
great comfort of the Royalists then resident in Oxford,
particularly the students ejected in 1648, who formed a
regular and pretty numerous congregation. The house
appropriated to this purpose was the residence of Dr.
Thomas Willis, the celebrated Physician. At the Restora-
tion he obtained a canonry of Christ- Church, and the
deanery of Westminster. In 1666 he was promoted to
the see of Rochester, and from thence in 1683 removed to
York. He diligently contributed to the good administra-
tion of the service in his cathedral, aud in 1685 made a
new regulation of Archbishop Grindals order of preachers,
and appointed a weekly celebration of the holy Sacrament ;
and was, in all respects, as his epitaph expresses it, " an
example both to the flock and to the pastors under him."
He died of the small-pox in April 1686, in the sixty-second
year of his age, and was buried in the cathedral at York.
He was a man of distinguished eloquence ; but he left
only some single sermons preached, on public occasions,
before the King. He was a munificent prelate, contri-
buting largely to the rebuilding of St. Paul's cathedral,
and to the repairs of Christ-Church, Oxford. He rebuilt
part of the Episcopal Palace at Bromley, and when dean
of Westminster, influenced the chapter to assign an equal
share with their own, in the dividends of fines, to the
repairs and support of that church. At Y^'ork he gave one

DOMINIC. 467

hundred and ninetj-five ounces of plate for the use of the
cathedral. — Le Neve. Wood.

DOMINIC, DE GUZMAN.

Guzman de Dominic, the patriarch or founder of the
order of Dominican Friars, was born in 1170, of a noble
family in Old Castile. At fourteen years of age he was
sent to the Premonstratensian monastery of Santa Maria
de la Vid, on the banks of the Douro, near Aranda ;
whence he is supposed to have been for a time transferred
to study at the public schools of Palencia, which were
afterwards transferred to Salamanca. By his learning, his
asceticism, and his charity, he soon attracted the attention
of the university ; and, when his education was finished,
he was appointed to preach the Gospel at Palencia. He
appears to have taken holy orders, first as a canon of the
convent of La Vid : but in 1198 Diego de Azeves, Bishop
of Osma, a prelate of high character, having reformed his
chapter, and in so doing having abolished the ofiQce of
dean, constituted himself the prior, and made Dominic
sub-prior. He was again respected by all who saw him,
for his wonderful austerities and his enthusiastic zeal.

In A.D. 1206, the Bishop was sent by Alfonso IX., King
of Castile, on an embassy to La Marche, and he was
accompanied by Dominic.

On their return they passed through Languedoc, where
they fell in with three Cistercian monks, legates of Pope
Innocent III., much discouraged with their ill success in
preaching against the heretics called Albigenses. They
informed the Bishop and his companions that these
heretics deceived the simple people, by an outward show
of modesty and holiness, which made their doctrine
acceptable. On the contrary, as the missionaries of the
pope came with great equipages, fine clothes, horses, and
servants, this pride and state caused the people to regard
them with aversion. " You have then mistaken the way

468 DOMINIC.

of recovering these people to a sounder faith," said the
Bishop. " We must combat their show of virtue by a true
piety ; we must journey on foot, take no money, and
imitate the Apostles." He sent back all his own atten-
dants and horses to Osma, and taking Dominic alone for
his fellow-labourer, began the task of a preacher about the
towns of Languedoc, and invited the rival teachers to con-
ferences, at which he could openly refute them.

This is not the place to enter into a lengthened
examination of the doctrines of the Albigenses. Their
cause was vigorously attacked and defended in the age of
Dominic, by a great number of writers ; and it is still a
disputed question among writers of the Church of Rome,
as well as many of the Church of England. Certain
protestant authors, as Sharon Turner and Dr. Gilly,
have tried to vindicate the memory of these unfortunate
people, as if they had maintained no serious errors ; but
the contrary appears proved beyond dispute by Mr. Hallam
in his History of the Middle Ages, and by Mr. Maitlaiid
in a work specially devoted to this enquiry.

After some sojourn thus employed in the infeclcd
district, Dominic was left alone by his bishop, who re-
turned to his diocese. He continued his labours; and
the writers of the age relate many wonderful stories of his
preaching, and the miracles by which it was accompanied.
What seems to be more certain is, that by a diploma, or
brief issued by Honorius III., about a.d. 1217, Dominic
and two of his companions, canons of the same Church in
Spain, first received the title of " Inquisitors of the Faith."
The appointment of the Cistercian monks by Innocent III,
was in its nature and object similar ; but this appears to
have been the first formal institution of that extraordinary
machine of terror and exorbitant ecclesiastical power,
known by the name of the Inquisition.

To devote one self to the office of proselytizing is always
a dangerous employment ; for constant discussion is apt to
excite too powerfully the malignant passions ; and the
malignant passions are often mistaken for the excitement

DOMINIC. 469

v>f a holy zeal. This happens to Puritans as well as to
Inquisitors, and to this deception Dominic fell a prey.

Innocent III. had already determined to adopt stronger
measures, and sent missionaries among the French Puri-
tans to preach a crusade against the Albigenses, offering
the same indulgences as had been awarded to the war-
riors in the Holy Land. The barbarous murder of the
pope's legate, Peter of Castelneau, one of the Cistercian
monks before mentioned, who was asssssinated by a ser-
vant of the Count of Toulouse and another ruffian, the
count being a favourer of the heretics, together with other
outrages committed, aided the eloquence of these mission-
aries, and an army was raised against the authors of these
violences. It does not appear that Dominic was ever
thus employed. The duty as yet devolved upon the
Bernardines. And the army was headed by a man, after-
wards noted for his fanatic ferocity, Simon de Montfort.
Dominic was better employed in organizing an order of
preaching monks, which, when fully established, was
called by his name, and who were to go, two and two, to
preach the faith in the districts disturbed by the heretics.
Foulques, or Fonquet, Bishop of Toulouse, a man of
talent, but of doubtful character, appears to have drawn
up the principal rules of the order, which existed in his
diocese seven years before. Honorius III. approved it by
his confirmation, December !:2'2nd, 1216.

There can be no doubt that the Bernardines, with the
fierce and ambitious Arnold Amaline, Abbot of Citeau, at
their head, urged on the crusaders to acts of violence and
bloodshed, and that in so doing they acted under the
sanction of the pope and his advisers, to the eternal dis-
grace of the Church of Rome ; although there were some
even among the cardinals who protested against the pro-
ceedings. Simon de Montfort and Arnold Amaline were
the greater monsters, because religion with them was
merely a pretext.

Alban Butler informs us that Dominic had no share in

VOL. IV -2 Y

470 DOMINIC.

these transactions, and that the original anthers of his
Life never speak of his having employed other arms
against the heretics than those of instruction and prayer.
He quotes also several authorities to shew that Dominic
was not the author of the Inquisition, of which he gives
the following account from Fontenai : " The Cistercian
monks were first charged with a commission by the pope
to denounce the Albigenses from the civil magistrate, when
it could be done ; which was a prelude to the Inquisition :
the project of which court was first formed in the council
of Toulouse in 12'29, and Pope Gregory IX., in 1233,
nominated two Dominican friars in Languedoc the first
Inquisitors. This tribunal has since been established
under different regulations in some parts of Italy, in
Malta, Spain and Portugal, while other kingdoms have
jealously excluded it."

This statement, however, is contradicted by a Spanish
writer, Joseph de Noriega, who asserts, as before mentioned,
that Honorius III. first gave the title of Inquisitors to
Dominic and his associates; adding, that the Brief convey-
ing this distinction was preserved in the year 1723 at the
Black Friars' Convent in Toulouse.

Dean Waddington sp'eaks of Dominic as " that falsely-
reputed inventor of inquisitorial torture." It is but just
to remove the weight of so bad a reputation from Dominic,
if there is no proof of his having participated in these pro-
ceedings. But Luis de Paramo, the Spanish authority on
the question, has preserved some early documents, which
prove that Dominic both acted in concert with the Cister-
cians, and was probably himself the inventor of the San-
henito, and directed the process to be taken with heretics
reconciled to the Church. Is it then probable that he did
not assist or consent to the burning of those who perished
by hundreds at a time in those bitter days of cruelty?
Even if he and his followers did not constitute any inde-
pendent tribunal, such as the Inquisition afterwards was,
and were not clothed with judicial power; still they were

DOMINIC. 471

empowered by the pope to discover, to convert, or to
arraign before the existing Ecclesiastical courts persons
suspected of heresy. They were exhorted to be accusers,
but not constituted, as the Inquisitors afterwards became,
judges.

Dominic found some difficulty at first in obtaining the
papal sanction for his order, that of the Preaching Friars,
Innocent III. objecting to a new system. In fact, as
Fleury observes, it was at last sanctioned by Honorius III.,
rather as a reformed Order of Austin Canons, than as a
new Religion of Friars Mendicant, Dominic closely follow-
ing the rules of the Premonstrants, among whom he had
been brought up, with the addition of a vow of poverty.
The first convent was founded at Toulouse ; and in ]'2-2i
he sent twelve of his brethren to establish a monastery at
Oxford, and another in London. In 1*276 the corporation
of London gave them two whole streets by the river
Thames, ^Yllere they erected a monastery. The place is
still called Blackfriars.

It is not to be supposed, that this new Order rose to
such distinction and popularity as it shortly attained
W'ithout some claims to public respect. It was soon filled
with men of the best learning which the age produced ;
and the name of Thomas Aquinas will for ever rescue it
from the charge of having owed its advancement to igno-
rant zeal only, and the awe which was then inspired in the
nations subject to the papal power. But as far as concerns
Dominic, it only remains to say that, after the establish-
ment of his order, he remained for some time at Piome :
and there, in 1218, having heard of the death of Simon
de Montfort before Toulouse, he returned to watch over
the labours of his associates who were aiding the crusade.
He then visited his native country, founded monasteries
in Spain and France, and died at Bologna, in 1221.

It is unnecessary to particularise the strange miracles,
which Dominic is said to have performed. From their
number and magnitude we should regard them, under any

472 DOMINIS.

circumstances, with suspicion; and they are asserted on
such questionable authority, that we may be pardoned for

at once rejecting them. SismondL Hist, of Crusades,

against the Albigenses. Hallams Middle Ages. Alban Butler.
Limborch's Hist, of the Inquisition. Paramo, De Orig. Tn-
quisitionis. Llorente, Inquisition d'Espagne. Noriega, Disr
sertat. de St. Domingo.

DOMINIS, MAEC ANTONIO DE.

Makc Antonio de Dominis was born in 1566, in the
island of Arbe, on the Dalmatian coast, of the same family
with Pope Gregory X. He was educated by Jesuits at
Loreto and Padua, and showed talents which caused him to
be regarded as a person likely to shed lustre on the order.
He soon quitted it, however, was secularized, and promoted
to the bishopric of Segni, and, two years later, to the arch-
bishopric of Spalatro. The measures of reform which he
introduced in the latter station, the nature of his discourses,
and his espousing the cause of the Venetians in the dis-
putes between them and Paul V., brought him under
suspicion of Protestantism. Fearing the consequences, he
left Spalatro in 1615, and repaired to Venice, where, with
the help of Bishop Bedell, he revised a work which he had
written against the pope's jurisdiction over other bishops.
In 1616 finding himself insecure at Venice, he took refuge,
first at Chur, in the Orisons, afterwards at Heidelberg,
and finally in England. He was extremely honoured,
says Heylin, at his first coming by all sorts of people ;
entertained in both universities with solemn speeches;
presented, complimented, feasted, by the great lords about
the court, the bishops, and some principal persons about
the city : happy was he that could be honoured with his
company, and satisfied with beholding his comely presence,
though they understood not his discourses. He was com-
mended by King James for a constant sojourner and guest

DOMINIS. 478

to Archbishop Abbot, in whose chapel, at Lambeth, he
assisted at the consecration of some EngHsh bishops. He
was made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy,
and Dean of Windsor, and by himseU' made rector of West-
Illesby in the county of Berks ; a revenue not so great as
to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of
covetousness, for the sake of fikhy lucre ; nor so con-
temptible, but that he might have lived plentifully and
contentedly on it. During his stay here, he published his
learned and elaborate book entitled, De Republica Ecclesi-
astica, never yet answered by the Papists, and perhaps
unanswerable. He had given great trouble to the pope
by his defection from that Church, and no small counte-
nance to the doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his
coming over unto ours. The found ring of so great a
pillar, seemed to prognosticate, that the fabric of that
church was not like to stand.

In these respects, those of that Church bestirred them-
selves to disgrace his person, devising many other causes,
by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those
parts, wherein he durst no longer tarry : but finding little
credit given to their libellous pamphlets, they began to
work upon him by more secret practices, insinuating, that
he had neither that respect nor those advancements which
might encourage him to stay ; that the new Pope Gregory
the Fifteenth was his special friend ; that he might chuse
his own preferments, and make his own conditions, if he
would return. And on the other side they cunninoly
wrought him out of credit with King James, by the arts of
Gundamore, ambassador at that time from the King of
Spain; and lessened his esteem amongst the clergy, by
some other artifices : so that the poor man, being in a
manner lost on both sides, was forced to a necessity of
swallowing that accursed bait, by which he was hooked
over to his own destruction. For having solicited King
James by several letters (the last of them beai'ing date on
the third of February) to license his departure home, he
•2y 2

474 DOMINIS.

was by the King disdainfully turned over to the high
commission, or rather to a special commission directed
to Archbishop Abbot, the Lord Keeper, Lincoln, the
Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, with cer-
tain of the lords of the privy council. These lords assem-
bling at Lambeth on the 30th of March, and having first
heard all his excuses and defences, commanded him to
depart the realm within twenty days, or otherwise expect
such punishment as by the laws of the land might be laid
upon him for holding intelligence by letters, messages,
&c., with the popes of Rome. To this sentence he sorrow-
fully submitted, protesting openly, that he would never
speak reproachfully of the Church of England, the articles
whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable, and
none of them to be heretical, as appears by a book entitled,
Spalatro's Shiftings in Religion, published (as it was
conceived) by Laud's especial friend, the Lord Bishop
of Durham.

But he failed to keep his word, for on his arrival at
Brussels, he recanted the English Reformation, and used
foul language towards our communion. He remained six
months at Brussels for the pope's brief, which was at last
refused. Thus he was forced to venture to Rome without
any safe conduct in writing. He missed the expectation
of a bishopric, and lived only on a pension from his holi-
ness. This maintenance, though continued during the
life of Pope Gregory the Fifteenth, was stopped by his
successor Urban the Eighth. This disappointment being
resented by Spalatro, made him venture on some danger-
ous freedoms, and talk pretended heresy: particularly
being at supper with one Cardinal Clesel, an old acquaint-
ance, he happened to drop this expression, that no Catho-
lic had answered his books, De Republica Ecclesiastica ;
adding however, that himself was able to deal with them.
It is thought this Clesel was disgusted by Spalatro's de-
clining to apply to him for recovering his interest at the
court of Rome : and that he invited this prelate to an

DONATXJS. 475

entertainment on purpose to lay a train of discourse, and
draw bim into a snare. But let this be as it will, he was
immediately imprisoned, his study searched, and several
papers found amounting to what they called heresy. He
died some months after his confinement, and, as some said,
by violence. But his own relations at Venice gave other
intelligence to Fuller, and afiSrmed he died a natural death ^
and that four of the Pope's sworn physicians, upon viewing
the corpse, gave in evidence upon oath, that there was no
mark of foul play found upon him. However, the dead
bishop passed through the forms of the Inquisition, and
was pronounced a relapsed heretic. iVfter this sentence,
the corpse was publicly burnt by the executioner in the
field of Flora.

Besides the work De Fiepubl. Eccles., he published,
1. Dominis sueb Profectionis a Venetiis Consilium expo-
nit, Lond. 1616. '2. Predica Fatta in Londra nella
Capella delli Mercieri, Lond. 1617. 3. Sui Reditus ex
xlnglia Consilium exponit, Eome, 1623. These were all
translated into English. 4. Scogli del Cristiano Nauf-
ragio, quali va Scopendo la Santa Chiesa, 1618. 5. De
Piadiis Visus et Lucis in Vitris Perspectivis, et Iride,
Venet. IQ 11.— Heijlbi. Collier. Fuller.

DONATUS.

Of this person, condemned to an evil fame as the
founder of the Donatist schism, little is known. He was
Bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia, in the early part of
the fourth century. Uniting with Secundus, and some
other discontented persons at Carthage, he formed a party
against Mensurius, the bishop of that city, and his deacon
Csecilianus. They accused Mensurius of being a traditor,
one who had given up the Scriptures to the idolaters,
on the persecution of Diocletian, and of refusing succour
to the Christians who were languishing in prison. But

476 DONATUS.

when, after the death of Mensurius, Caecilianiis was chosen
to succeed him, this schism came to an open rupture.
Cascihanus was consecrated before their arrival, and with-
out the co-operation, which w^as not at all required by the
canons, of the Numidian bishops, by Felix of Aptungus.
The seventy Numidian bishops, when they arrived at
Carthage, found there a small party who were hostile to
CaBcilianus ; this party consisted of two presbyters who had
been disappointed in their hopes of obtaining the bishopric,
and of a female named Lucilla, whose riches gave her
power. In 31^ a synod was held at which Secundus of
Tigisis presided, and in which the reader, Majorinus, one
of the household of Lucilla, was elected Bishop of Carthage,
in opposition to Caecihanus. Mosheim gives the history of
the feect with his usual accuracy and conciseness. After
remarking that some persons are of opinion that the
Donatists derive their name from another Donatus, whom
the Donatists surnamed the Great, he says that this con-
troversy in a short time spread far and wide, not only
through Numidia, but even through all the provinces of
Africa, which entered so zealously into this ecclesiastical
w^ar, that in most cities there were two bishops, one at the
head of Csecilianus' party, and the other acknowledged by
the followers of Majorinus. The Donatists having brought
this controversy before Constantine the Great, that Em-
peror, in the year 313, appointed Melchiades, Bishop of
Rome, to examine the matter, and named three bishops
of Gaul to assist him in this inquiry. The result of this
examination was favourable to Caecilianus, who was en-
tirely acquitted of the crimes laid to his charge : but the
accusations that had been brought against Felix of Ap-
tungus, by whom he was consecrated, were left out of the
question. Hence it was, that the Emperor, in the* year
314, ordered the cause of Felix to be examined separately
by ^Uan, proconsul of Africa, by whose decision he was
absolved. The Donatists, whose cause suffered necessarily
by these proceedings, complained much of the judginent

DOXATUS. 477

pronounced by Melchiades and ^lian. The small num-
ber of bishops, that had been appointed to examine their
cause jointly with Melchiades, excited in a particular
manner their reproaches, and even their contempt. They
looked upon the decision of seventy Numidian prelates,
as more respectable than that pronounced by nineteen
bishops (for such was the number assem^bled at Eome,)
who, besides the inferiority of their number, were not suffi-
ciently acquainted with the African affairs to be competent
judges in the present question. The indulgent Emperor,
willing to remove these specious complaints, ordered a
second and a much more numerous assembly to meet at
Aries in the year 314, composed of bishops from various
provinces, from Italy, Gaul, Germany, and Spain. Here
again the Donatists lost their cause, but renewed their
efforts by appealing to the immediate judgment of the
Emperor, who condescended so far as to admit their
appeal ; and, in consequence thereof, examined the whole
affair himself in the year 316, at Milan, in the presence
of the contending parties, The issue of this third trial
was not more favourable to the Donatists than that of the
two preceding councils, whose decisions the Emperor
confirmed by the sentence he pronounced. Hence this
perverse sect loaded Constantino with the bitterest re-
proaches, and maliciously complained that Osius, Bishop
of Cord u a, who w^as honoured with his friendship, and
was intimately connected with Csecilianus, had, by corrupt
insinuations, engaged him to pronounce an unrighteous
sentence. The Emperor, animated with a just indignation
at such odious proceedings, deprived the Donatists of their
churches in Africa, and sent into banishment their sedi-
tious bishops. Nay, he carried his resentment. so far as
to put some of them to death, probably on account of the
intolerable petulance and malignity they discovered, both
in their writings and in their discourse. Hence arose
violent commotions and tumults in Africa, as the sect of
the Donatists was extremely powerful and numerous there.
The Emperor endeavoured by embassies and negotiations.

478 DONATUS.

to allay these disturbances, but his efforts were without
effect.

These unhappy commotions gave rise, no doubt, to
a horrible confederacy of desperate ruffians, who passed
under the name of Circumcelliones This furious, fear-
less, and bloody set of men, composed of the rough and
savage populace, who embraced the party of the Donatists,
maintaining their cause by the force of arms, and, over-
running all Africa, filled that province with slaughter and
rapine, and committed the most enormous acts of perfidy
and cruelty against the followers of Csecilianus. This
outrageous multitude, whom no prospect of sufferings
could terrify, and who, upon urgent occasions, faced death
itself with the most audacious temerity, contributed to
render the sect of the Donatists an object of the utmost
abhorreuce ; though it cannot be made appear, from any
records of undoubted authority, that the bishops of that
faction, those, at least, who had any reputation for piety
and virtue, either approved the proceedings, or stirred up
the violence of this odious rabble. In the mean time the
flame of discord gathered strength daily, and seemed to
portend the approaching horrors of a civil war; to pre-
vent which, Constantine having tried, in vain, every
other method of accommodation, abolished at last, by
the advice of the governors of Africa, the laws that
had been enacted against the Donatists, and allowed the
people a full liberty of adhering to the party they liked
the best.

After the death of Constantine the Great, his son
Coastans, to whom x^frica was allotted in the division of
the empire, sent Macarius and Paulus into that province,
with a view to heal this deplorable schism, and to engage
the Donatists to conclude a peace. Donatus, surnamed
the Great, the principal bishop of that sect, opposed all
methods of reconciliation with the utmost vehemence, and
his example was followed by the other prelates of the
party. The Circumcelliones also continued to support the

DONATUS. 479

cause of the Donatists by assassinations aod massacres
executed with the most unrelenting fury. They were, how-
ever, stopt in their career, and were defeated by ?.■ acarius,
at the battle of Bagnia. Upon this, the affairs of the
Donatists declined apace ; and Macarius used no longer
the soft voice of persuasion to engage them to an accom-
modation, but employed his authority for that purpose.
A few submitted ; the greatest part saved themselves by
flight ; numbers were sent into banishment, among whom
was Donatus the Great; and many of them were punish-
ed with the utmost severity. During these troubles,
which continued near thirteen years, several steps were
taken against the Donatists, which the equitable and
impartial will be at a loss to reconcile with the dictates
of humanity and justice; nor, indeed, do the Catholics
themselves deny the truth of this assertion, and hence the
complaints which the Donatists made of the cruelty of
their adversaries.

The Emperor Julian, upon his accession to the throne
in the year 36'2, permitted the exiled Donatists to return
to their country, and restored them to the enjoyment of
their former liberty. This step renewed the vigour of that
expiring sect, who, on their return from banishment,
brought over, in a short time, the greatest part of the
province of Africa, to espouse their interests. Gratian,
indeed, published several edicts against them, and in the
year 377, deprived them of their churches, and prohibited
all their assemblies public and private. But the fury of
the Circumcelliones, who may be considered as the soldiery
of the Donatists, and the apprehension of intestine tumults,
prevented, no doubt, the vigorous execution of these laws.
This appears from the number of churches which this
people had in Africa towards the conclusion of this cen-
tury, and which were served by no less than four hundred
bishops. Two things, however, diminished considerably
the power and lustre of this flourishing sect, and made it
decline apace about the end of this century ; the one was

480 DONATUS.

a violent division that arose among them, on account of a
person named Maximin ; and this division, so proper to
weaken the common cause, was the most effectual in-
strument the Catholics could use to combat the Dona-
tists. But a second circumstance, which precipitated
their decline, was the zealous and fervent opposition of
St. Augustine. This learned Father attacked the Do-
natists in every way. In his writings, in his public
discourses, and in his private conversation, he exposed
the dangerous and seditious principles of this sect in the
strongest manner ; and as he was of a warm and active
spirit, he animated against them, not only the province
of Africa, but also the whole Christian world, and the im-
perial court,

The reader is referred for further particulars to the Life
of St. Augustine. The Donatists, according to DoUinger,
endeavoured to justify their schism dogmatically, by assert-
ing that only that Church, which would not tolerate a
known sinner within itself, could be the true Church ; that,
except their own, all other Churches, (as they admitted
the traditors Caecilianus and Felix of iVptungus into their
religious communion), had been corrupted and separated
from the true Church, of which they ceased to form a
part. They imagined, therefore, that they could per-
suade men, that the Catholic Church in all other parts
of the world had fallen, and was centred only with them
in Africa. As, moreover, they asserted that the effects
of the Sacraments depended on the merit and sanctity
of the minister, they concluded that all Sacraments con-
ferred out of their Church were thereby invalid ; they,
therefore, rebaptized all those who went over to their
party. Like the Novatians, they considered themselves
the only pure and holy men, they boasted of their
martyrs, and carried their horror of the Catholics,
" the sons of the traditors," so far, as to avoid every
kind of intercourse with them. — Mosheim. DoUinger.
Guiseler.

DONNE. 481

DONNE, JOHN.

John Donne was born in London, in 1553. He re-
ceived his early education from a private tutor, and in bis
eleventh year was entered at Hart Hall, Oxford, whence
he removed, three years after, to Trinity College, Cam-
bridge. He distinguished himself by his proficiency at
both universities ; but, by the advice of his relations, who
were Eomanists, and objected to the necessary oaths, he
did not take a degree. About the age of seventeen he
became a member of LincolnVInn ; but having, by his
father's death, inherited the sum of £3000, he thought it
unnecessary to follow any profession, and devoted himself
to general literature. His instructors w^ere chosen by
his mother and guardians, who charged them to possess
his mind with the Romish tenets ; but after a long and
deliberate enquiry into the controversy between the
Church of Rome and the Church of England, he re-
nounced popery, and determined to conform to the Catho-
lic Church, as it had been reformed in his native country.
The spirit in which the search was made, may be best
described in his own words, in the Preface to his Pseudo-
Martyr.

" They who have descended so low as to take knowledge
of me, and to admit me into their consideration, know
well that I used no inordinate haste, nor precipitation in
binding my conscience to any local religion. I had a
longer work to do than many other men ; for I was first to
blot out certain impressions of the Roman religion, and to
wrestle both against the examples and against the reasons,
by which some hold was taken ; and some anticipations
early laid upon my conscience, both by persons who by
nature had a power and superiority over my will, and
others who, by their learning and good life, seemed to me
justly to claim an interest for the guiding and rectifying
of mine understanding in these matters. And althoup-h
I apprehend well enough, that this irresolution not (;iily

VOL. IV. 2 z

4S2 DONNE.

retarded my fortune, but also bred some scandal, and
endangered my spiritual reputation, by laying me open to
many misinterpretations ; yet all these respects did not
transport me to any violent and sudden determination,
till I had, to the measure of ray poor wit and judgment,
surnamed and digested the whole body of divinity, contro-
verted between ours and the Koman Church. In which
search and disquisition, that God, Which awakened ' me
then, and hath never forsaken me in that industry, as He
is the author of that purpose, so is He the witness of this
protestation ; that I behaved myself and proceeded therein
with humility and diffidence in myself; and by that,
which by His grace, I took to be the ordinary means,
which is frequent prayer, and equal and indifferent
affections."

He accompanied the Earl of Essex to Cadiz in 1596,
and on the voyage to the Azores in the following year.
He then spent some years in Italy and Spain. On his
return to England he was appointed secretary to Lord
Chancellor Ellesmere, with whom he remained five years.
This connexion made him acquainted with Lady Elies-
mere's niece, the daughter of tSir George Moore, lieutenant
of the Tower. A private marriage took place between
them, which so highly enraged Sir George, that he pro-
cured Donne's dismission from the chancellor's service,
and caused him to be imprisoned. He was soon released:
but Lord Ellesmere, from a regard to his own reputation
for consistency, refused Sir George's request that he might
be restored to the office of secretary. Sir Francis Woolley,
of Pirford, in Surrey, son of Lady Ellesmere by her first
husband, afforded Donne and his family an asylum for
hOme years, and shortly before his death prevailed on Sir
George to allow them £20 quarterly. At this time,
says Isaac Walton, a most generous offer was made him,
which must be related in old Isaac's own inimitable
Ktyle

(lod has been so good to His Church, as to afford it in

DONNE. 483

every age some such men to serve at His altar as have
been piously ambitious of doing good to mankind, a dis-
position that is so like to God Himself, that it owes itself
only to Him who takes a pleasure to behold it in His crea-
tures. These times He did bless with many such ; some
of which still live to be patterns of apostolical charity, and
of more than human patience. I have said this, because
I have occasion to mention one of them in my following
discourse ; namely. Dr. Morton, the most laborious and
learned Bishop of Durham ; one, that God hath blessed
with perfect intellectuals, and a cheerful heart at the age
of ninety-four years ; one, that in his days of plenty had
so large a heart as to use his large revenue to the encou-
ragement of learning and virtue, and is now- (be it spoken
with sorrow) reduced to a narrow estate, which he em-
braces without repining ; and still shews the beauty of his
mind by so liberal a hand, as if this were an age in which
to-morrow ivere to care for itself. I have taken a pleasure
in giving the reader a short, but true character of this
good man, my friend, from whom I received this following
relation. He sent to Mr. Donne, and intreated to borrow
an hour of his time for a conference the next day. After
their meeting, there was not many minutes passed before
he spake to Mr, Donne to this purpose : " Mr. Donne,
the occasion of sending fo| you is to propose to you what
I have often revolved in my own thought since I last saw
you ; which nevertheless 1 will not declare but upon this
condition, that you shall not return me a present answer,
but forbear three days, and bestow some part of that time
in fasting and prayer ; and after a serious consideration of
what I shall propose, then return to me with your an-
swer. Deny me not, Mr. Donne ; for it is the effect of a
true love, which I would gladly pay as a debt due for
yours to me."

This request being granted, the doctor expressed him-
self thus :

" Mr. Donne, I know your education and abilities ; I
kBow your expectation of a state-employment ; and I know

484 DONNE.

your fitness for it ; and I know too, the many delays and
contingencies that attend court-promises ; and let me tell
you that my love begot by our long friendship, and your
merits, hath prompted me to such an inquisition after
your present temporal estate, as makes me no stranger to
your necessities ; which I know to be such as your gener-
ous spirit could not bear, if it were not supported with a
pious patience. You know I have formerly persuaded
you to waive your court-hopes, and enter into holy orders ;
which I now again persuade you to embrace, with this
reason added to my former request; the King hath
yesterday made me Dean of Gloucester, and I am also
possessed of a benefice ; the profits of which are equal to
those of my deanery, I will think my deanery enough for
my maintenance (who am, and resolve to die a single
man) and will quit my benefice, and estate you in it,
(which the patron is willing I shall do) if God shall
incline your heart to embrace this motion. Remember,
Mr. Donne, no man's education or parts make him t(X)
good for this employment, which is to be an ambassador
for the God of Glory, that God Who by a vile death
opened the gates of life to mankind. Make me no present
answer, but remember your promise, and return to me the
third day with your resolution."

At the hearing of this Mr. Donne's faint breath and
perplexed countenance gave a visible testimony of an in-
ward conflict ; but he performed his promise and departed
vrithout returning an answer till the third day, and then
his answer was to this effect :

" My most worthy and most dear friend, since I saw
you, I have been faithful to my promise, and have
also meditated much of your great kindness, which hath
been such as would exceed even my gratitude ; but
that it cannot do ; and more I cannot return you ; and
I do that with an heart full of humility and thanks,
though I may not accept of your offer: but, sir, my
refusal is not for that I think myself too good for that
calling, for which kings, if they think so, are not good

DONNE. 485

enough : nor, for that my education and learning, though
not eminent, may not, being assisted with God's grace,
and humility, render me in some measure fit for it ; but,
I dare make so dear a friend as you are my confessor :
some irregularities of my life have been so visible to some
men, that though I have, I thank God, made my peace
with him by penitential resolutions against them, and by
the assistance of His grace banished them my affections;
yet this, which God koows to be so, is not so visible to
man, as to free me from their censures, and it may be that
sacred calling from a dishonour. And besides ; whereas
it is determined by the best of casuists, that God's glory
should be the first end, and a maintenance the second
motive to embrace that calling; and though each man
may propose to himself both together, yet the first m.ay
not be put last \nthout a violation of conscience, which
He that searches the heart will judge. And truly my
present condition is such, that if I ask my own conscience,
whether it be reconcileable to that rule, it is at this time
so perplexed about it, that I can neither give myself nor
you an answer. You know, sir, who says Happy is that
tnan, ivhose conscience doth not accuse him for that thimj
which he does. To these I might add other reasons that
dissuade me ; but I crave youv favour that I may forbear
to express ihem, and thankfully decline your offer."

This was his present resolution; but the heart of man
is not in his own keeping , and he was destined to this
sacred service by a higher hand ; a hand so powerful,
as at last forced him to a compliance : of which I shall
now give the reader an account.

After the death of Sir George Woolley, Donne resided
for some time at Mitcham, having lodgings in London,
where he was consulted by persons of all classes and
nations. He afterwards removed, by Sir Robert Drury's
desire to Drury-House, in Drury-Lane, London, and in
1609 he attended Sir Kobert to Paris, in company with
Lord Hay, the ambassador.

2z 2

486 BONNE,

About this time, says Isaac Walton, there grew many
disputes that concerned the oath of supremacy and allegi-
ance, in which the King had appeared, and engaged him-
self by his public writings now extant : and, his majesty
discoursing with Mr. Donne, concerning many of the
reasons which are usually urged against the taking of
those oaths, apprehended such a validity and clearness in
his stating the questions, and his answers to them, that
his majesty commanded him to bestow some time in draw-
ing the arguments into a method, and then to write his
answers to them ; and, having done that, not to send, but
be his own messenger, and bring them to him. To this
he presently and diligently applied himself, and, within
six weeks brought them to him under his own hand-
writing, as they be now printed ; the book bearing the
name of Pseud o- Martyr, printed anno 1610.

When the King had read and considered that book, he
persuaded Mr. Donne to enter into the ministry; to which
at that time he was, and appeared, very unwilling, appre-
hending it (such was his mistaken modesty) to be too
weighty for his abilities ; and though his majesty had
promised him a favour, and many persons of worth medi-
ated with his majesty for some secailar employment for
him (to which his education had fitted him), and particu-
larly the Earl of Somerset, when in his greatest height of
favour; who being then at Theobalds with the King, where
one of the clerks of the council died, that night the earl
posted a messenger for Mr. Donne to come to him imme-
diately, and at iVIr. Donne's coming, said " Mr. Donne,
to testify the reality of my affection, and my purpose to
prefer you, stay in this garden till I go up to the King,
and bring you word that you are clerk of the council :
doubt not my doing this, for I know the King loves you,
and know the King will not deny me." But the King
gave a positive denial to all requests, and having a dis-
cerning spirit replied, " I know Mr. Donne is a learned
man, has the abilities of a learned divine, and will prove
a powerful preacher ; and my desire is to prefer him that

DONNE. 487

way ; and in that way I will deny you nothing for hini/'
After that time, as he professeth, the King descended to
a persuasion, almost to a solicitation of him to enter into
sacred orders ; which though he then denied not, yet he
deferred it for almost three years. All which time he
applied himself to an incessant study of textual divinity,
and to the attainment of a greater perfection in the learned
languages, Greek and Hebrew.

Walton also informs us that his abilities and industry
in his profession were so eminent, and he so known and
so beloved by persons of quality, that within the first
year of his entering into sacred orders he had fourteen
advovvsons of several benefices presented to him ; but
they were in the country, and he could not leave his
beloved Ijondon, to which place he had a natural inclina-
tion, having received both his birth and education in it,
and there contracted a friendship with many, whose con-
versation multiplied the joys of his life ; but an employ-
ment that might aflfix him to that place would be welcome,
for he needed it.

In 1614 he received his degree of D.D. In 1617
he became preacher to Lincoln's Inn. In 16:21 he
was appointed Dean of St. Paul's. Immediately on his
coming to the deanery, he employed workmen to repair
and beautify the chapel, suffering, as holy David once
vowed, his eyes and temples to take no rest till he had
first beautified the house of God. In 1624 he was chosen
prolocutor to the convocation. He was once, says honest
Isaac Walton, and but once, clouded with the King's
displeasure ; and it was about this time ; which was occa-
sioned by some malicious whisperer, who had told his
majesty that Dr. Donne had put on the general humour
of the pulpits, and was become busy in insinuating a fear
of the Kings inclining to popery, and a dislike of his
government ; and particularly for the King's then turning
the evening lectures into catechising, and expounding the
Prayer of our Lord, and the Belief, and Commandments.
His majesty was the more inclinable to believe this, for

488 DONNE.

that a persoD of nobility and great note, betwixt whom
and Dr. Donne there had been a great friendship, was at
this very time discarded the court (I shall forbear his
name, unless I had a fairer occasion) and justly committed
to prison ; which begot many rumours in the common
people, who in this nation think they are not wise unless
they be busy about what they understand not ; and espe-
cially about religion.

The King received this news with so much discontent
and restlessness, that he would not suffer the sun to set
and leave him under this doubt, but sent for Dr. Donne,
and required his answer to the accusation ; which was so
clear and satisfactory, that the King said he was right
glad he rested no longer under the suspicion. When the
King had said this. Dr. Donne kneeled down and thanked
his majesty, and protested his answer was faithful and
free from all collusion, and therefore desired that he might
not rise till, as in like cases he always had from God, so
he might have from his majesty, some assurance that he
stood clear and fair in his opinion. At which the King
raised him from his knees with his own hands, and pro-
tested he believed him ; and that he knew he was an
honest man, and doubted not but that he loved him truly.
And having thus dismissed him, he called some lords of
his council into his chamber, and said with much earnest-
ness, " My doctor is an honest man : and, my lords, I
was never better satisfied with an answer than he hath
now made me : and I always rejoice when I think that
by my means he became a divine."

Isaac Walton, writing at the time of the Rebellion when
the Church was silenced, her music with her liturgy being
proscribed; gives us a hymn written by the dean, and
says " I have the rather mentioned this hymn, for that he
caused it to be set to a most grave and solemn tune, and
to be often sung to the organ by the choristers of St. Paul's
church, in his own hearing, especially at the evening
service ; and at his return from his customary devotions
in that place, did occasionally say to a friend. The

DONNE. 489

words of this hymn have restored to me the same thoughts
of joy that possesed my soul in my sickness when I com-
posed it. And, 0 the power of church music ! that har-
mony added to this hymn has raised the affections of my
heart, and quickened my graces of zeal and gratitude :
and I observe, that I always return from paying this
public duty of prayer and praise to God, with an un-
expressible tranquillity of mind, and a willingness to leave
the world."

After this manner did the disciples of our Saviour, and
the best of Christians in those ages of the Church nearest
to his time, offer their praises to Almighty God. And
the reader of St. Augustine's life may there find, that
towards his dissolution he wept abundantly, that the
enemies of Christianity had broke in upon them, and
profaned and ruined their sanctuaries ; and, because
their public hymns and lauds were lost out of their
churches. And after this manner have many devout souls
lifted up their hands and offered acceptable sacrifices unto
Almighty God where Dr. Donne offered his, and now lies
buried.

Walton informs us that the latter part of his life
may be said to have been a continued study ; for as
he usually preached once a week, if not oftener, so after
his sermon he never gave his eyes rest, till he bad
chosen out a new text, and that night cast his sermon
into a form, and his text into divisions ; and the next
day betook himself to consult the fathers, and so com-
mit his meditations to his memory, which was excel-
lent. But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and
his mind a rest from the weary burthen of his week's
meditations, and usually spent that day in visitation
of friends, or some other diversion of his thoughts ; and
would say, that he gave both his body and mind that
refreshment, that he might be enabled to do the work
of the day following, not faintly, but with courage and
cheerfulness. He died in 1631.

His works are, — 1. Sermons, 3 vols, folio. '2. Pseudo-

490 DOUGLAS.

Martyr, 1610. 3. Devotions, 1625. 4. Biathanatos. 5.
Essays in Divinity, 1651. 6. Ignatius, his Conclave, &c.,
1653. 7. Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters, 1652.
8. Poems. 9. Letters. His collected works were pub-
lished in 1839, under the judicious editorship of the
Rev. H. AUovd.— Walton. Alford.

DOUGLAS, GAWIN.

Gawin Douglas, celebrated rather as a poet, and one
of the most distinguished luminaries that marked the re-
storation of letters in Scotland, than as a divine, was born,
the third son of the Earl of Angus, at Brechin, in 1474.
He received his education, first in his own country, and
next at Paris. On his return to Scotland he was made
Provost of the Church of St. Giles, at Edinburgh, and
afterwards Abbot of Aberbrothick. He was also nominated
to the Archbishopric of St. Andrew's, but this dignity he
never obtained, owing to the refusal of the pope to con-
firm the appointment. He was, however, advanced to the
Bishopric of Dunkeld, which diocese he improved by many
public works, but the violences that prevailed, obliged
him at last to retire to England, where Henry VIII
granted him a pension. He died of the plague at Loncj
in lb'22. Bishop Douglas translated the ^neid of Viri^j ,
with the additional book of Maphaeus, into Scottish ver^e,
printed at London in 1553, 4to. His other works are a
poem called " The Palace of Honour," 4to ; another, en-
titled " King Hart," printed in 1786. His Virgil was
reprinted at Edinburgh, in folio, with a glossary, in
illO.—Biou. Brit.

DOWDALL, GEORGE.

George Dowdall, a native of the county of Louth,
was, on the recommendation of Lord St. Leger, Lord-

DOWDALL. 401

deputy of Ireland, named Archbishop of Aru^agh by
Henry VIII. in 1543. The terms upon which Henry
stood with the Roman see at this time caused the pope to
refuse to receive his nominee ; nevertheless Dowdall was
at the head of the Romish party in the Church of Ireland.
His history is so blended with that of Archbishop Browne,
that the reader is referred to Browne's Life, under which
article the history of the early days of the Reformation in
Ireland is given.

According to Bishop Mant, Archbishop Dowdall was
a man of gravity and learning, and a very assiduous
preacher, but withal a most zealous advocate for popery :
notwithstanding which he was contented to accept his ad-
vancement from the King ; and could never succeed in
obtaining a provision from Pope Paul the Third, who had
conferred the archbishopric on Robert Waucop, by others
called Yenantius, a Scot, who assisted at the council of
Trent, from 1545 to 1547 ; and is transmitted by history
with the glory or the shame, of having, about two years
before, been the first to introduce the Jesuits into Ireland,
with the favour and countenance of the pope ; and the ob-
serving reader, as is well remarked by Cox, in his history,
written in 1689, "will easily perceive the dismal and hor-,
rible effects of that mission, which hath ever since em-
broiled Ireland, even to this day."

The conduct of Archbishop Dowdall, first in accepting
the primacy from the King, notwithstanding his attach-
ment to the papacy, and then in seeking a nomination
from the pope, notwithstanding his acknowledgment of
the King s supremacy, leaves him with a character which
it were difficult to vindicate from the charge of instability,
if not of disregard and dereliction of principle, unless
indeed in accordance with the rule of morals which his
rival, the titular primate, had lately introduced into the
kingdom, as means of undermining the simplicity and
godly sincerity of the Gospel.

For a time, however, the new primate seems not to
have had much opportunity of manifesting his popish

49-2 DOWDALL.

predilections by any act directly hostile and offensive to
the advocates of the reformed religion ; and the only mea-
sure attributed to him at this period is, that in a synod
holden by him in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda, June 20,
1645, it was appointed and ordained, " that the festival of
St. Richard, Archbishop of Armagh, should be celebrated
with nine lessons yearly, in crastino Johannis et Patdl"
that is, the day following the 26th of June. The canoni-
zation of the celebrated primate, Richard Fitzralph, under
the designation of " St. Richard of Armagh," seems to
have been the act of Dowdall himself: for when, in conse-
quence of the miracles attributed to Fitzralph after his
death, Pope lioniface the Ninth had issued a commission
to certain prelates for holding an inquiry concerning their
truth, the whole matter w^as permitted to vanish away in
silence under the commission.

Thus by recognizing the saintsliip of his predecessor,
and by appointing a rule for celebrating his festival,
Archbishop Dowdall gave a convincing testimony cf his
own religious predilections ; but he appears to have had
no occasion for placing himself in an attitude of resist-
ance to the Reformation, as no fresh etibrts were made
for its advancement in the Church of Ireland till after
the year 1546, when the death of King Henry made
way for his son and successor, King Edward the Sixth.

The zeal he displayed in resisting the introduction of
the English liturgy in 1551, with his altercation with the
Lord- deputy, is related in the Life of Archbishop Browne.
Sir James Crofts was appointed as viceroy in the spring of
that year, who is described as "a zealous Protestant;"
and agreeably to that character, as well as in dutiful dis-
charge of the trust reposed in him by his Sovereign, he
lost no time on his arrival in endeavouring to persuade
the primate into submission to the King's order concern-
ing the liturgy. Having, therefore, been sworn into oflSce
on the 23rd of May, he wrote an earnest letter to Arch-
bishop Dow^dall, on the 16th of June, inviting him to a
conference with the other prelates ; and sending his letter,

DOWDALL. 493

in testimony of respect, by the principal of the primate's
suffragans, Staples, Bishop of Meath. This letter, and
the primate's ans\Yer follow, copies of them being preserved
among the Harris MSS., in the Royal Dublin Society's
Library, vol. iv. p. 472.

Sir James Crofts, Lord Deputy to George Dowdall,
Bishop of Armagh : —

*' Reverend Sir,

*' We understand you are a reverend father of the
Church, and do know full well that you are not ignorant
of the obedience due unto kings and princes ; for the chief
of bishops, namely, Christ, the bishop of our souls, shewed
you the way by His tribute given unto Csesar, the same
being formerly confessed and acknowledged to be so due
by the bishops of Rome themselves ; therefore, if your
lordship will appoint a place where I may conveniently
have the happiness of appeasing wrath between the fathers
of the Church and your grace, I shall think my labour
well spent to make a brotherly love therein, as I profess
myself to be a Christian. Yet as I am employed under
my most gracious Sovereign Lord, within this his majesty's
realm, I needed not have sought this request; but fearing
we shall have an order ere long to alter church matters,
as well in offices as in ceremonies, which I would prevent
if possible, therefore, out of my hearty affections unto
your paternal gravity and dignity, I have written by the
chief of the bishops under your jurisdiction, (viz.) the
Bishop of Meath, by whom we entreat your grace's
answer. From his majesty's castle of Dublin, June 6th,
1552." (Apparently a mistake in the MS. for June 16th,
1551.)

(Signed.) " James Ckofts."
(Superscribed)

*' To the Reverend Father in God, George, Archbishop of
Armagh, at St. Mary's Abbey, by Dublin."

VOL. IV 3 a

494 DO WD ALL.

The Archbishop of Armagh's answer to the Lord Deputy.

" Right Honourable,

" Your kind and hearty overtures came unto me
unexpected. I fear it is in vain for me to converse with
an obstinate number of churchmen, and in vain for your
lordship to suppose the difference between us can be so
soon appeased, as our judgments, opinions, and consciences
are different : yet do accept of your honour's friendly
proffers. I shall rejoice to see your lordship, and would
have waited on you in person : but having withdrawn
myself for a long space during your predecessor's govern-
ment, and for a while since, it is not so meet for me to
appear at your lordship's palace. This, I hope, is a sufiS-
cient reason from

" Your lordship's humble servant,

" Geoege Aemachanus."
" To the Right Honourable Sir James Crofts, Knight, his
majesty's Viceroy of Ireland."

In pursuance of this negotiation, the proposed conference
took place the following day, in the great hall of St. Mary's
Abbey, where the primate had for some time resided in a
state of dignified or sullen seclusion, and where the Lord
Deputy condescended to his humour, and attended him
accompanied by the Bishop of Meath, and Lancaster,
Bishop of Kildare. In the debate which ensued, the
particulars of which are extant in a manuscript of the
British Museum, the principal interlocutors were the
Primate and the Bishop of Meath, and occasionally the
Lord Deputy. And although neither party gave way to
the sentiments of his opponent, and no profitable result
accrued from the discussion, it is gratifying to notice the
viceroy's demeanour of respectful courteousness towards the
dignified ecclesiastic, whose opinions he disapproved ; and
how the suffragan bishop, whilst he frankly controverted
and effectually repelled the positions of his metropolitan,

DOWDALL. 495

accosted him with the most becoming inoffensiveness,
temperance, and reverence of language and of manner.

The conference was opened by this question from the
Archbishop :

" My lord, why is your honour so for my compKance
with these clergymen, who are fallen from the mother
Church ?"

Lord Deputy. " Because, reverend father, I would fain
unite you and them, if possible."

Archhishoj). " How can that be expected, when you
have demolished the mass, to bring in another service of
England's making ?"

Lord Deputy. " jMost reverend father, I make no doubt
but here be those, who will answer your grace, which
behoofs them best to answer in this case, as it belongs to
their function."

Bishop of Meath. " My lord says well, as your grace
was talking of the mass, and of the antiquities of it."

Archbishop. "Is it not ancienter than the liturgy, now
established without the consent of the mother Church T'

Bishop of Meath. " No, may it please your grace : for
the liturgy, established by our gracious King Edw^ard and
his English clergy, is but the mass reformed and cleansed
from idolatry."

Archbishop. " We shall fly too high, we suppose, if we
continue in this strain. I could wish you would hearken
unto reason, and so be united."

Bishop of Meath. " That is my prayer, reverend sir, if
you will come to it."

Archbishop. " The way then to be in unity is not to
alter the mass."

Bishop of Meath. " There is no Church, upon the
face of the whole earth, hath altered the mass more
oftener than the Church of Rome : which hath been the
reason, that causeth the rationaller sort of men to desire
the liturgy to be established in a known tongue, that they

496 DOWDALL.

may know what additions have been added, and what they
pray for."

Archbishop. " Was not the mass from the Apostles'
days ? how can it be proved, that the Church of Rome
hath altered it ?"

Bishop o/Meath. " It is easily proved by our records
of England. For Ccelestinus, Bishop of Rome, in the
'fourth century after Christ, gave the first introit of the
mass, which the clergy was to use for preparation ; even
the psalm, 'Judica me Beus, &c;' Rome not owning the
word mass till then."

Archbishop " Yes, long before that time : for there was
a mass called St. Ambrose's mass."

Bishop of Meath. " St. Ambrose was before Ccelestinus :
but the two prayers which the Church of Rome had
foisted and added unto St. Ambrose's works are not in
his general works : which hath caused a wise and a
learned man lately to write, that those two prayers were
forged, and not to be really St. Ambrose's.

Archbishop. " What writer dares write, or doth say
so?"

Bishop of Meath. •' Erasmus, a man who may well
be compared to either of us, or the standers by. Nay,
my lord, no disparagement if 1 say so to yourself : for he
was a wise and a judicious man, otherwise I would not
have been so bold, as to parallel your lordship with him."

Lord Deputy. " As for Erasmus's parts, would I were
such another : for his parts may parallel him a companion
for a prince. "

Archbishop. " Pray, my lord, do not hinder our dis-
course; for I have a question or two to ask Mr. Staples."

Lord Deputy. " By all means, reverend father, proceed."

Archbishop. " Is Erasmus's writings more powerful
than the precepts of the mother Church ?"

Bishop of Meath. "Not more than the holy Catholic
one, yet more than the Church of Rome, as that Church
hath run into several errors since St. Ambrose's days."

BOWDALL. 497

Archbishop. " How hath the Church erred since
St. Ambrose's days ? Take heed lest you be not excom-
municated."

Bishoj) of Meath. ♦' I have excommunicated myself
already from thence. Therefore with Erasmus I shall
aver, that the prayers in St. Ambrose's mass, especially
that to the Blessed Virgin Mary, appears not to be in
his ancient works : for he had more of the truth and of
God's Spirit in him, than our latter bishops of Rome ever
had, as to pray to the Blessed Virgin, as if she had been
a goddess.

Archbishop. "Was she not called 'blessed;' and did
she not prophesy of herself, when she was to bear our
Saviour Jesus Christ, that she would be called by all men
'blessed ;' "

Bishop of Meath. " Yes, she did so. But others be
called ' blessed,' even by Christ Himself. In His first
sermon, made by Him in the mount, ' blessed,' saith He,
' be the meek, be the merciful, be the pure of heart :
blessed be those persecuted for righteousness' sake, and
those that hunger and thirst after the same :' and He
blessed the low-minded sort, of which few or none of
the bishops of Rome can be said to be called since Con-
stantino's reign. Christ also to all those who shall partake
of His heavenly kingdom, will likewise say unto them,
' Come, ye blessed of My Father, &c.' "

Archbishop. " Why, pray, is it not probable, that
St. Ambrose desired the Blessed Virgin's mediation for
him, as she is the mother of Christ ? Are not children
commanded by God's commandments to reverence and
obey their parents ? therefore, as He is a man, why may
He not be subject ?"

Bishop of Meath. " St. Ambrose knew better, that he
ought to apply to Jesus, the sole and only Mediator be-
tween him and God ; and that, as Christ is man. He is
the Mediator. If the Blessed Virgin, therefore, can com-
mand her Son in heaven to mediate, then St. Ambrose
3a 2

498 DOW BALL.

would have made her a goddess, or a coadjutor with God,
Who is Himself omnipotent. And lastly, if we make her
a mediator as well as Christ, we do not only suspect
Christ's insufficiency, but mistrust God's ordinances,
thinking ourselves not sure by His promises to us and
our forefathers, that Christ should be our Mediator."

Archbishop to the Lord Deputy. " My lord, I signified
to your honour, that all was in vain, when two parties
should meet of a contrary opinion ; and that your lord-
ship's pains therein would be lost, for which I am heartily
sorry."

Lord Deputy. " The sorrow is mine, that your grace
cannot be convinced."

Archbishop. " Did your lordship but know the oaths
we bishops do take at our consecrations, signed under our
hands, you would not blame my stedfastness. This oath,
Mr. Staples, you took with others, before you were per-
mitted to be consecrated. Consider hereon yourself, and
blame not me for persisting as 1 do."

Bishop of Meath. "My Lord Deputy, I am not
ashamed to declare the oath, and to confess my error in
so swearing thereunto. Yet I hold it safer for my con-
science to break the same, than to observe the same. For
when your lordship sees the copy thereof, and seriously
considers, you will say it is hard for that clergyman,
so swearing, to be a true subject to his King, if he
observe the same : for that was the oath, which our
gracious King's royal father caused to be demolished, for
to set up another, now called the oath of supremacy, to
make the clergy the surer to his royal person, his heirs
and successors."

" Then," as the manuscript narrative concludes the
account, " the Lord Deputy rose and took leave ; so like-
wise did the Bishops of Meath and Kildare, who waited
on his lordship."

The contest which took place for precedence between

DOWNHAM. 499

the Archbishop of Armagh and the Archbishop of Dublin
is narrated in the life of Archbishop Browne, to whom for
a brief space it was conceded. Archbishop Dowdall, when
deprived of the primacy, removed beyond the seas, which
was regarded by the government as tantamount to a resig-
nation of his archbishopric, and a successor was appointed.
Archbishop Dowdall, however, was restored by Queen
Mary in 1553, and was commissioned, with others, to
restore popery to the Church of Ireland.

The restored primate was not remiss in testifying his
zeal for the peculiarities of his religion, which had been
shaken by the inroads of the Reformation.

In 1554, the same year in which he acted in the same
cause under the royal commission, he held a provincial
synod in St. Peter's church, Drogheda, or Tredagh, as the
town was then called ; the constitutions of which chiefly
tended to the restoration of popery and the deprivation of
the married clergy, and of which one article laid an obli-
gation upon all rectors and vicars, who did not know how
to preach, of engaging a substitute to preach for them four
times a year. The next year he caused a day of jubilee
to be observed through all Ireland for the restoration of
the Romish religion. And in 1556 he held another pro-
vincial synod at Drogheda, in which little more was done
than the giving of liberty to husbandmen and labourers
to work on certain festivals during harvest.

Archbishop Dowdall died in London, in 1558. — Mant's
Hist, of the Church of Ireland.

DOWTsHAM, GEOEGE.

George Downham was son of William Downham,
Bishop of Chester, and was born in that city. He was
educated at Cambridge, was chosen fellow of Christ's
College in 1585, and was afterwards Professor of Logic.
James I. , to whom he had been chaplain, raised him to
the Bishopric of Derry in 1616. Among his works are, — •

500 DRELINCOUET.

1. A Treatise concerning Antichrist, 1603. 2. The Chris-
tian's Sanctuary, 1604. 3. Papa Antichristus, 1620.
4. The Covenant of Grace, Dublin, 1631. 5. A Treatise
on Justification, London, 1633, folio. 6. The Christian's
Freedom, Oxford, 1635. 7. A Treatise on Prayer, 1640,
and some sermons. He died in 1634. — Ware.

DRELINCOUET, CHARLES.

Charles Drelincourt was born in 1595, at Sedan,
where his father occupied the post of registrar to the
supreme council. He was educated in the classics and
theology in his native town ; whence he was sent to
Saumur, to study philosophy under Duncan. In 1618
he was admitted to the ministry, and officiated for some
time in the neighbourhood of Langres, till 1620, when he
removed to Paris, where he settled as pastor to the Church
at Charenton. In 1625 he married the daughter of a rich
merchant at Paris, by whom he had sixteen children. He
wrote a treatise on the preparation for the Lord's Supper,
and Consolations against the Fears of Death, which, be-
sides undergoing numerous impressions in the French,
have been translated into the German, Flemish, Italian,
and English languages. His Charitable Visits, also, in
five volumes, and three volumes of Sermons, which he
published, were very favourably received. Among his
controversial pieces, his Catechism, and his Abridgment
of Controversies, have been most frequently reprinted. —
Gen. Diet.

DRIEDO, or DRIDOENS, JOHN.

John Driedo flourished in the sixteenth century, a
native of Turnhout, in Brabant. He studied at the
university of Louvain, where he was a pupil of Adrian
Florent, afterwards Adrian VI., and became qualified for

DRUSIUS. 501

the theological chair. In the controversy between the
Lutherans and Roman Catholics he took an active part ;
and, according to the testimony of Erasmus, in one of his
letters, disputed both coolly and learnedly. He died at
Louvain in 1535. He wrote Lib. IV. De Scripturis et
Dogmaticis Ecclesiasticis ; Lib. II. De Gratia et Libero
Arbitrio ; De Concordia Liberi Arbitrii et Praedestina-
tionis ; De Captivitate et Redemptione Generis Humani ;
and De Libertate Christiana. — Moreri.

DRUMMOKD, ROBEET HAY.

Robert Hay Drummond, the second son of George
Henry, Earl of Kinnoul, by a daughter of Robert Harley,
Earl of Oxford, was born in London in 1711. He was
educated at Westminster School, from whence he removed
to Christ Church, Oxford, of which college he became
student. On entering into orders he was appointed chap-
lain to the King, whom he attended abroad, and preached
a thanksgiving sermon before him after the victory at
Dettingen, On his return he was installed prebendary
of Westminster; and in 1748 made Bishop of St. Asaph.
In 1761 he was translated to Salisbury, and the same
year preached the coronation sermon; soon after which he
was removed to the see of York. He died in 1776. He
published six occasional sermons, which were collected,
with a Letter on Theological Study, in one vol. 8vo. 1803,
to which his Life is prefixed. — Memoir as above.

DEUSIUS, OB DRIECHE, JOHN.

John Drusius, divine, was bom at Oudenard in 1550.
He was educated at Ghent and Louvain, after which he
studied Hebrew at Cambridge. In 1572 he became pro-
fessor of the Oriental languages at Oxford, but, in 1576,
he returned to Louvain and studied law. He next ob-

502 DUG.

tained a professorship at Leyden, and lastly at Franeker,
where he died in 1616. He wrote several learned works.
His son John, who died in England in 1609 at the age of
twenty-one, was versed in the learned languages, particu-
larly the Hebrew. — Wood.

DEUTHMAE, CHBISTIAN.

Cheistian Deuthmae, a monk in the abbey of Corby, in
the ninth century, was born in Aquitaine, and afterwards
taught in the monasteries of Stavelo and Malmedy, in the
diocese of Liege. He left a commentary on St. Matthew,
Strasburg, 1514; or Haguenau, 1530, folio; and in the
Library of the Fathers. It contains some opinions respect-
ing tran substantiation, decidedly opposed to those of mo-
dern Romanism, though they were regarded as orthodox
at the time of his writing. He commenced a commentary
on St. Luke and St. John, which he did not live to finish.
For St. Mark he refers his pupils to a commentary of
Bede. His commentary on St. Luke and St. John was
printed at Haguenau, in 1580, in the Bibliotheca Patrum.
— Moreri. Dujnn.

DUG, NICHOLAS LE.

Nicholas le Due, a French priest, in the diocese of
Rouen, was at first settled on a benefice at Trouville en
Caux, which he quitted in order to remove to Paris, where
he was for fifteen years vicar of St. Paul's; but in 1731,
being accused of Jansenism, and interdicted by the arch-
bishop from engaging in his clerical functions, he devoted
himself entirely to a studious life. He had a considerable
share in the translation of De Thou's History, in 16 vols,
4to. He was also the author of a work entitled L'Annee
Ecclesiastique, in 15 vols, 12mo; and translated some of
Cardinal Bona's " Way to Heaven, and shortest Way

to God;" Hymns from the Breviary of Paris. Biog.

Universelle.

DUNS. 503

DUNS SCOTUS, JOHN,

John Duns Scotus was born about 1265, at Dunstance,
in the parish of Emildon, or Embleton, near Alnwick, in
Northumberland. Some writers have contended that he
was a Scotchman, and that the place of his birth was
Dunse, in Berwickshire ; and others have asserted that he
was an Irishman. When a youth, he joined himself to
the Minorite friars of Newcastle ; and, being sent by them
to Oxford, he was admitted into Merton College, of which
he became fellow. While a student at the university, he
is said to have been very eminent for his knowledge in the
civil and canon law, in logic, natural philosophy, meta-
physics, mathematics, and astronomy. Upon the removal
of William Varron from Oxford to Paris, in 1301, Duns
Scotus was chosen to supply his place in the theological
chair, which office he sustained with such reputation, that
it is said more than 30,000 scholars came to the university
to be his hearers. In 1304 he removed to Paris. At a
meeting of the monks of his order at Toulouse, in 1807,
he was created regent ; and about the same time he was
placed at the head of the theological schools at Paris. He
has the ill fame of being the first who broached the grand
error which is now so prevalent in the Church of Ptome,
but was at first strongly opposed by the Dominicans, of
the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. He in-
fluenced the university of Paris to adopt the heresy, and
supported his cause with such subtilty of logic, that he
obtained on that occasion the title of Doctor Subtilis, the
subtle doctor, which he deserved for the pregnancy of his
parts. His celebrated attack on the system of Thomas
Aquinas drew this skilful reasoner very frequently into
vain and idle distinctions, but in all his dialectic disputes
he maintained a steady zeal for the promotion of real
knowledge. He endeavoured to ascertain some certain
principle of knowledge, whether intellectual or sensible,
and applied himself to demonstrate the truth and neces-
sity of revelation. As a realist he differed from Thomas,

504 DUNS.

by asserting that the universal is contained in the parti-
cular not merely i7i posse but m cwtn: that it is not created
by the understanding but communicated to it : that the
nature of things is determined to particular or universal
by a higher principle ; with other opinions too obscure to
be satisfactorily detailed. In psychology he opposed the
belief that the faculties of the soul were distinct, and
maintained the freedom of the will. In theology he
endeavoured to fortify the cosmological proof of the exist-
ence of the Deity, and to demonstrate the Divine attributes.
He asserted the Supreme power of the Divine Will in all
things, even in the establishment of the laws of morality;
which he deduced from that alone. Occasionally he ex-
pressed doubts respecting the admissibility of a theology
founded on principles of reason.

Duns Scotus was the founder of a school, the Scotists,
who distinguished themselves for subtilty of disputation,
and for incessant disputes with the Thomists. These
disputes were so frequently mixed up with human pas-
sions, that science derived from them little benefit ; and it
very frequently happened that the points in question
instead of being elucidated were obscured through their
controversies.

In 1308, Duns Scotus was ordered by Gonsalvo, the
general of the Minorites, to remove to Cologne, on the
road to which he was met in solemn pomp, and conducted
thither by the whole body of the citizens. Not long after
his arrival in this city he was seized with an apoplexy,
which carried him off, on the 8th of November, 1308, in
the forty-third, or, as others say, in the thirty-fourth year
of his age. Paul Jovius's account of the mode of his death
is, that when he fell down of his apoplexy he was imme-
diately interred as dead ; but that, afterwards coming to
his senses, he languished in a most miserable manner in
his coffin, beating his head and hands against its sides,
till he died. He was the author of numerous works,
several of which have been separately published ; and in
1474, the English Franciscans printed a collection of the

DUNSTAN. 505

larger part. At length they were collected together hy
Luke Wadding, an Irishman, illustrated with notes, and
having a Life of the author prefixed, and published at
Lyons in 1639, in 12 vols, fol. — Wharton. Tenneniann.

DUNSTAN.

DuNSTAN was born in 925, of a noble family, in Wessex,
the son of Heorstan and Cynethiyth, or Cynedrida, who
appear to have resided near Glastonbury, and was nephew
of Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was educated
in the school of Glastonbury. He seems to have been a
dehcate boy, and to have been subjected to a brain
fever, when he thought himself, and was believed by
others, to have been haunted by devils, and rescued by
Divine power.

By his uncle, Archbishop Athelm, he was presented to
King Athelstan, in whose court, by his engaging manners,
and his various accomplishments, especially in music, he
became a favourite. The jealous courtiers attributed his
success to magic, and, on the death of Athelm, he left the
court, and repaired to the house of another uncle, Alfheh,
Bishop of Winchester. On his road he was waylaid by
his persecutors and sorely injured.

He could not have been more than eighteen or nineteen
years of age when he reached Winchester, where he fell
in love with a maiden in every respect his equal. The
match was opposed by his uncle, as there existed a pre-
judice against the marriage of the clergy, which would
have prevented his rising in the Church when old enough
to take orders. The bishop urged him to embrace the
strict rule of monastic life, then prevalent in France ; but
for monachism Dunstan avowed his distaste. His con-
tending feelings, however, brought on another attack of
fever, and then, listening to the exhortations of his uncle,
he vowed, if he recovered, to retire from the world.

VOL. IV. 3 B

506 DUNSTAN.

On his recovery, he built himself a small cell adjacent
to the walls of the church of Winchester. Here he pur-
sued his studies as well as his devotions ; and not only in
writing and illuminating books, but in the manufacture of
articles for the ornament of the church, his skill was
evinced.

In those days there was, of course, a learned class by
whom the genius of Dunstan was respected. But there
was, if we may so express ourselves, no middle class
in literature. The effect of superior genius, therefore,
appeared to the great bulk of the people like black- art, of
which Dunstan was suspected. It is not a matter of sur-
prise that the youthful Dunstan, accused of magic, should
at length be led to think that there was something super-
natural about him, and, ever since the brain-fever of his
boyhood, he appears to have laboured under a monomania
on the subject of demons, who, he thought, were always
attempting to annoy him. To this period we are to give
the story of his interview with the devil. The devil, it is
said, came to his hut in the form of a man, and asked
him to beat a piece of iron, which he brought with him,
into a certain form. This Dunstan did, but suspecting
who his visitor was, suddenly seized the fiend by the nose
with his red hot tongs, and forced him to resume his
former shape. It is probable that the young enthusiast
may have been insulted, that he revenged the insult in
the manner described, and imagined that in doing so he
punished the devil, of whom he stood in such constant
dread at this period of his life.

In 940 Dunstan was recalled to court by King Edward,
who soon afterwards made him Abbot of Glastonbury. Eng-
land had hitherto abounded with conventual foundations
liberally endowed, but these were rather colleges than
regular monasteries. They afiforded accommodation to the
secular clergy, for youth under education, and for some few
ascetics bound by solemn vows. Dunstan was ambitious of
introducing regular monachism under the most popular

DUNSTAN. 507

form, as it existed on the continent, the Benedictine ;
and he now commenced that struggle for ascendancy over
the secular clergy, on the part of the Benedictines, which
continued till after the Norman Conquest. It was doubt-
less by Dunstan, his chaplain, that King Edward was
induced to build and endow a regular monastery at his
beloved and venerated Glastonbury. This was the first
establishment of the kind ever known in England, and
Dunstan w^as the first Benedictine abbot. He may indeed
be regarded as the father of English monachism, though
the ' Father of Monks' is the title usually given to his
friend and pupil Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, by
whom the details were matured. To complete his founda-
tion, he dealt hardly with the secular clergy, who had
hitherto resided at the establishment of Glastonbury. But
he formed an admirable school, in which were educated
the most celebrated ecclesiastics of the latter half of the
tenth century. The abbot himself, in spite of his suc-
cess, still imagined himself haunted by demons.

Dunstan remained in honour both in his monastery
and at court till the reign of Edwy, to whom he rendered
himself obnoxious by opposing the rising corruptions of
the court. A tragic story is invented with reference to
the amours of that young King, into the facts of which it
is unnecessary to enter, as Dunstan was only concerned
in the opening scene. The King having insulted his
nobles at his coronation feast, by retiring to the apartment
of his mistress, a married woman, was brought back to
the banqueting hall by Dunstan, and Kynesey, Bishop of
Lincx)ln, who used on this occasion something between
persuasion and force. The next year Dunstan was
banished by the ofiended and profligate King, and his
monks at Glastonbury dispersed.

But on the partition of the kingdom, Edgar sent for
Dunstan, who returned amidst the acclamations of the
people, and, having recalled his monks to Glastonbury, he
was, in 958, made Bishop of Worcester, to which was

508 DTJNSTAN.

added soon after the see of London. In 962 lie was
made Archbishop of Canterbury, holding in commendam
the sees of London and Rochester. At this time he was
only about thirty- eight years of age.

While Archbishop of Canterbury he gave a proof af
faithfulness, which was not always imitated by his succes-
sors. King Edgar had carried away by force a beautiful
damsel, Wulfrida, from the monastery at Wilton. And
when Dunstan next came into the royal presence he
refused to give his hand to the King^ "I will never be the
friend," he said, " of him to whom God is an enemy."
Edgar fell on his knees and acknowledged his fault, and
Dunstan enjoined him a penance of seven years, during
which he was never to wear his crown. Among the acts
of penance enjoined upon him, it ought to be noted that
this was one, to transmit at his own expense to the dif-
ferent counties of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, copies of
Holy Scripture.

Nor may we omit another instance of the Archbishop's
independence worthy of imitation. He excommunicated
a powerful earl who had made an incestuous marriage; the
earl, finding royal interference of no avail to remove the
penalty, spent his money freely at Rome, and obtained a
letter from the Pope, commanding Dunstan to absolve
him. But the Archbishop resolutely refused to obey that
bribed foreign potentate, until the sin had been forsaken :
the Pope had not at this time obtained the power he
afterwards usurped over our Church, though it is clear that
if Dunstan had been a weak man, a precedent for papal
interference at this time would have been established.

During the reign of Edgar Dunstan was his chief
adviser. About forty monasteries were at this time built^
and most of them richly endowed. And the whole reli-
gious enthusiasm of the Church ran in that direction, a
circumstance which confirms the statement that the secular
clergy had become corrupt, and that it was by turning the
seculars into regulars a reform was hoped to be effected.

DUNSTAN. 509

Dunstan appears, though zealous in this cause, to have
been a liberal man, and to have tolerated the secular
clergy — the canons remained unmolested at Canterbury,
while at Worcester and Winchester the bishops resorted
to acts almost of persecution to convert their cathedral
churches into monasteries. But the canons ejected, or
menaced with ejection, and the married clergy especially,
very naturally began to complain of the treatment they
had received. Their cause was espoused by several of the
more powerful of the laity. This led to a convocation of
the national estates at Winchester in 968, where heavy
charges were brought against the married clergy. To this
it was replied, that all reasonable causes of complaint
should be removed. The majority of the nobles inclined
to the side of the married priests, and the King himself
began to waver. But the council came to no decision.
There is a story that the council separated, alarmed at
hearing a voice from a crucifix in the wall, saying, " God
forbid it to be done." But modern writers are slow to
believe this, as it appears to be an apocryphal legend pos-
terior to the Conquest.

In the reign of Edward, the successor of Edgar, another
assembly was held at Calne, to settle the disputes between
the married clergy and the monks, when suddenly the
floor of the room in which they met gave way, and many
persons were seriously injured, some killed, Dunstan
himself being left alone standing upon a beam. As
Mr. Churton observes, a similar accident has occurred
almost within the memory of man, when the floor of a
court of justice, at a county assize, giving way, many per-
sons were maimed, and some killed, while Sir Eardley
Wilmot was left in his seat against the wall. We can
have no sympathy with those party historians, who, with-
out the shadow of a proof, think fit to insinuate that
Dunstan contrived this wholesale destruction to carry his
point — his point, indeed, not being carried, for no decision
was come to. Dunstan was a pious and learned prelate,
3b 2

510 DUNSTAN.

and there is nothing in his history to justify so foul a
suspicion. Though he erred in introducing monachism
into our Church, it was the error of a mind, mistaken it
may be, but seeking only the glory of God by a reformation
of the Church of England, according to the notions of
reformation then prevalent.

Nor were his notions of reformation confined to the
introduction of monachism. The church laws passed in
the reigri of Edgar are to be attributed to Dunstan, and
many of these are excellent, and, of course, where not
subsequently altered, are still binding : it is enjoined that
every clergyman shall do his duty in his own parish, and
not interfere with another; that he must not appear in
church without his surplice ; that he must not administer
the Eucharist in private houses, except in sickness; that
every parish priest must preach every Sunday to his peo-
ple. There is one law which makes the Lord's Day to
commence at noon on Saturday and last till Monday "s
dawn.

Archbishop Dunstan felt deeply the murder of the
young King by his step-mother. He officiated unwillingly
at the coronation of Ethelred, and predicted that, in ven-
geance for his brother's blood, the sceptre would pass from
his house to a nation of strangers. From that time he
ceased to interfere in state affairs. He lived to see the
fulfilment of his prophecy commenced. In Ethelred's
third year, a fleet of northern pirates appeared on the
coast of England, and their invasions continued till they
had subdued the kingdom under a Danish dynasty.
Dunstan died May 19th, 988, in the 64th year of his age,
and was buried at Canterbury.

The strong measures adopted by Dunstan against the
secular and married clergy of our Church have made him
unpopular among ourselves ; but it is trusted that the
life of this most distinguished and learned man has been

written with impartiality. Wright. Soames. Churton.

Johnsons Ecclesiastical Laws.

DUPIN. 511

DUPIN, LOUIS ELLIS.

Lotus Ellis Dupin, a celebrated historian, to whom
the reader of the Ecclesiastical Biography is so often re-
ferred, was born at Paris, in 1657, of an ancient and noble
family. After having gone through his course of grammar
learning and philosophy in the college of Harcourt, he
embraced the ecclesiastical state, and frequented lectures
of divinity in the Sorbonne. Afterwards he applied him-
self entirely to the reading of councils, fathers, and ecclesi-
astical writers, Greek as well as Latin ; and, being found
at his examination among the first rank, he was admitted
doctor of the Sorbonne, upon the first of July, 1684. In
1686, when the contest was at its height, how far the
Galilean Church could dispense with the institution of
Bishops at Rome, (See Life of Bossuet) Dupin published
a treatise on the Ancient Discipline of the Church. It is
written in Latin, and it tends to represent all that can be
called power and jurisdiction in the see of Piome, as ac-
quired, if not abusive, leaving to the Pope a mere primacy.
He considered the Church to have reached her perfection
in the fourth century, and that we should endeavour, as
far as circumstances will admit, to restore the discipline of
that age. In the same year he commenced his great
work entitled, Bibliotheque Universelle des Auteurs Eccle-
siastique, &c., the first volume of which, containing the
writers of the first three centuries, was printed at Paris,
1686, 8vo, and was followed by four volumes in succession,
published at different periods from that time to the year
1719. But before Dupin had completed his Account of
the Writers of the first Eight Centuries, the freedom with
which he had expressed his opinion on the style, the sen-
timents, and the conduct of many of them, excited the
hostility of several monks of the Benedictine order, whose
strictures were published under the inspection of father
Matthew Petit-Didier, afterwards Bishop of Macra. These
remarks engaged Dupin in a defence of what he had

512 DUPIN.

written, in which his abilities were advantageously dis-
played. But his labours met with the still more formidable
opposition of Bossuet, wiho soon perceived how much an
honest reference to the doctrines and the writers of anti-
quity would damage the Romish cause, and who, there-
fore, collected a number of propositions from his volumes,
which he pronounced to be of a dangerous tendency, and
which he made the subject of complaint against the author
to Harlay, Archbishop of Paris. Dupin attempted to calm
the resentment of his ecclesiastical superiors by a retrac-
tation of the opinions of which he had been accused, in
hopes of preventing his work from being entirely sup-
pressed. It did not, however, escape the censure and
condemnation of the archiepiscopal court, which was pro-
nounced in 1693, and the learned Sorbonnist was forbidden
to proceed. In order to evade the prohibition he continued
his undertaking under a different form and title ; hence-
forth interweaving an account of ecclesiastical wnters with
a general history of the Church. He thus went on, con-
cluding with the beginning of the eighteenth century,
the whole making 47 vols, 8vo, which were reprinted at
Amsterdam, in 19 vols, 4to. It was also begun to be
translated into Latin, and the first three volumes were
printed at Amsterdam ; but no farther progress was made.
Dupin was engaged at his death in a Latin translation, to
which he intended to make considerable additions. This
Bibliotheque was likewise to be translated into English,
and printed at London in several volumes in folio, usually
bound in seven. A better edition was printed in three
vols, folio, by Grierson of Dublin. The translation appears
to have been executed partly by Digby Cotes, and revised
by VVotton. The translation has been censured by
Mr. Maitland. Mr. Dowling observes of the work itself,
that at the time it was written, it was undoubtedly an
important work, and must have had considerable influence
on the progress of Church-history. The author was a
man of extensive and various learning, and of an inde-

BUPIN. 513

pendent and candid mind. But he appears to have been
a person of little originality. His liberality too frequently
seems mere indifferentism ; and his book abounds through-
out with evident marks of carelessness and haste. The
writer of these pages willingly acknowledges his obligations
to an early guide, but it is right to warn the student that
the work of Dupin is very far from exhibiting the present
state of ecclesiastical knowledge.

In addition to Dupin's other literary labours, he was
commissary in most of the affairs of the faculty of theology
of the Sorbonne, was professor of divinity in the Royal
College, and was for many years editor of the Journal des
S^avans, and carried on an extensive correspondence with
learned men. Dupin was again brought into trouble by
the celebrated Case of Conscience. This Case of Con-
science was a paper signed by forty doctors of the Sor-
bonne, in 170:2, the purport of which allows some latitude
of opinion with respect to the sentiments of the Jan-
senists. It occasioned a controversy of some length in
France, and most of those who signed it were censured or
punished. Dupin, in particular, was not only deprived
of his professorship, but banished to Chatellerault. At
length he was induced to withdraw his subscription, and,
by the interest of some friends, was permitted to return ;
but his professorship w^as not restored to him. Clement
XI. sent formal thanks to Louis XIV. for bestowing this
chastisement upon Dupin ; and in the brief which he
addressed to the King on that occasion, characterised him
as " a man who held very pernicious opinions, and who
had been guilty of a criminal opposition to the proper
authority of the apostolical see." Dupin afterwards met
with much trouble under the regency, on account of the
correspondence which he held with Dr. Wake, Archbishop
of Canterbury, which had for its object the formation of a
union between the Church of England and the Church of
France. A succinct account of the correspondence is
given by Butler.

514 DUPIN.

On the occasion of the marriage of the Princess
Christina of Wolfenbuttell, a Lutheran, with the Arch-
duke of Austria, her court consulted the faculty of
theology, of the University of Helmstadt, on the question,
" Whether a protestant Princess, destined to marry a
Koman Catholic Prince, could, without wounding her
conscience, embrace the Roman Catholic religion ?" The
faculty replied, that, " it could not answer the proposed
question, in a solid manner, without having previously
decided, whether the catholics were, or were not engaged in
errors, that were fundamental, and opposed to salvation; or,
(which was the same thing), whether the state of the Roman
Catholic Church was such, that persons might practise in
it the true worship of God, and arrive at salvation." This
question the divines of Helmstadt, discussed at length ;
and concluded in these terms : "After having shown, that
the foundation of religion, subsists in the Roman Catholic
religion, so that a person may be orthodox in it, live well
in it, die well in it, and obtain salvation in it, the discus-
sion of the proposed question is easy. We are, therefore,
of opinion, that the most Serene Princess of Wolfen-
buttell, may, in favour of her marriage, embrace the
Roman Catholic religion." This opinion is dated the
28th of April, 1707, and was printed in the same year
at Cologne. The journalists of Trevoux inserted both the
original and a French translation of it in their journal of
May, 1708.

Under these circumstances, the correspondence in ques-
tion took place. It began in 1718, through Dr. Beauvoir,
chaplain to Lord Stair, his Britannic majesty's ambas-
sador at Paris. Some conversation on the re-union of the
two churches having taken place, between Doctor Dupin
and him, he acquainted the Archbishop of Canterbury
with the subject of them. This communication produced
some compliments from the archbishop to Dr. Dupin,
and these led the latter to address to his grace a letter,
in which he mentioned generally, that on some points

DUPIN. 515

in dispute, the supposed difference between the two com-
munions was reconcileable. The correspondence getting
wind, Dr. Piers pronounced a discourse in the Sorbonne,
in which he earnestly exhorted his colleagues to promote
the re-union, by revising those articles of doctrine and
discipline, which protestants branded with the name of
papal tyranny ; and contended that by proscribing the
ultramontane doctrines, the first step to the re-union
would be made. The discourse was communicated to
Dr. Wake ; in his answer he pressed Dr. Dupin for
a more explicit declaration, on the leading points in
controversy.

In compliance with this requisition. Dr. Dupin drew
up his Commonitorium, and communicated it to several
persons of distinction, both in the state and Church of
France. He discussed in it the Thirty-nine Articles, as
they regarded doctrine, morality, and discipline. He in-
sisted on the necessity of tradition to interpret the Scrip-
tures, and to establish the canonicity of the books of the
Old and New Testament. He insisted on the infallibility
of the Church in faith and morals ; he contended that the
sacrifice of the mass was not a simple sacrament, but a
continuation of the sacrifice of the cross.

The word transubstantiation he seemed willing to give
up, if the Pioman Catholic doctrine, intended to be ex-
pressed by it, were retained. He proposed that commu-
nion under both kinds, or under bread alone, should be
left to the discretion of the different Churches, and con-
sented that persons in holy orders should retain their
state, with such provisions, as would place the validity of
their ordination beyond exception. The marriage of priests
in the countries in which such marriages were allowed,
and the recitation of the divine service in the vulgar
tongue, he allowed ; and intimated that no difficulty would
be found in the ultimate settlement of the doctrine respect-
ing purgatory, indulgences, the veneration of saints, relics,
or images. He seems to have thought that the pope can

516 DUPIN.

exercise no immediate jurisdiction within the dioceses of
bishops, and that his primacy invested him with no more
than a general conservation of the deposit of the faith, a
right to enforce the observance of the sacred canons, and
the general maintenance of discipline. He allowed, in
general terms, that there was little substantially wrong in
the discipline of the Church of England ; he deprecated
all discussion on the original merit of reformation, and he
professed to see no use in the pope's intervention, till the
basis of of the negotiation should be settled.

The answer of the Archbishop was not very explicit. It
is evident from it that he thought the quarrels on the sub-
ject of Jansenism had alienated the Jansenists and their
adherents from the Pope, much more than they had done
in reality He was willing to concede to the pope a primacy
of rank and honour, but would by no means allow him a
primacy of jurisdiction, or any primacy by divine right.
On the other points, he seemed to have thought that they
might come to an agreement, on what they should declare
to be the fundamental doctrine of the Churches, and adopt
on every other point of doctrine, a general system of
Christian toleration.

The correspondence, which is very interesting, may be
seen in the last volume of the English translation of
Dr. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. To facilitate the
accomplishment of the object of it, Dr. Courayer published
his celebrated treatise on the Validity of the English
Ordinations.

It is said that the Czar of Muscovy also consulted
Dupin on an union with the Greek Church. Dupin was
an eager opponent of the constitution styled Unigenitus,
and was the great leader of the opposition to it in the
Sorbonne, the deputations, commissions, and memorials,
all passing through his hands. At length, exhausted by
his uninterrupted labours, he died at Paris, on the
6th of June, 1719, in his sixty- second year. His other
works were numerous, but his fame rests on the Biblio-
theque. — Niceron. Chaufejne. Douiing. Butler. Hallam.

DUPPA. 5ir

DUPPA, BRIAN.

Brian Duppa was born in 1588, at Lewisham, in Kent,
and was educated at Westminster and Christ Church.
He was elected fellow of All Soul's in 1612, and in 1629
he was appointed dean of Christ Church. In 1634 he
was constituted chancellor of the church of Sarum, and
soon after made chaplain to Charles I. He was appointed,
in 1638, tutor to Charles Prince of Wales, and afterwards
to his brother the Duke of York ; he was also presented to
the living of Petworth, in Sussex, and in the same year
was nominated to the Bishopric of Chichester. In 1641
he was translated to the see of Salisbury, but received
no benefit from it, on account of the suppression of
episcopacy.

On this event he repaired to the King at Oxford ; and,
after that city was surrendered, attended him in other
places, particularly during his imprisonment in the Isle
of Wight. He was a great favourite with the King, whom
he is said by some to have assisted in composing the
Eikon Basilike. The royal martyr placed great confidence
in him, and entrusted him with the delicate and important
office of supplying the vacant bishoprics ; an office which
he retained until the Restoration. After Charles's death,
Bishop Duppa retired to Richmond, in Surrey, where he
lived a solitary life, but was engaged with Barwick and the
Bishop of Ely in a plan for continuing the episcopal suc-
cession, notwithstanding the triumph of dissent during the
period of the rebellion. The plan was not completed when
the Restoration took place. On that event Dr. Duppa was
translated to the Bishopric of Winchester, and was also
made lord-almoner. About 1661 he began an alms-house
at Richmond, and had designed some other works of
charity, but was prevented from accomplishing them by
his death, which took place at Richmond in 1662. A few
hours before he expired, Charles 11. honoured him with a
visit; and, kneeling down by the beJ-side, begged his

VOL. IV o c

518 DURANDUS.

blessing ; which the Bishop, with one hand on his majesty's
head, and the other lifted up to heaven, gave with fervent
zeal. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, on the north
side of the Confessor's chapel ; where a large marble stone
was laid over his grave, with only these Latin words en-
graved upon it : " Hie jacet Brianus Winton." He wrote,

1 . The Soul's Soliloquies, and Conference with Conscience ;
a sermon before Charles I. at Newport, in the Isle of
Wight, on October 25, being the monthly fast, 1641, 4to.

2. Angels rejoicing for Sinners repenting ; a sermon on
Luke XV. 10, 1648, 4to. 3. A Guide for the Penitent, or
a Model drawn up for the Help of a devout Soul wounded
with Sin, 1660, 8vo. 4. Holy Rules and Helps to Devo-
tion, both in Prayer and Practice, in two parts, 1674,
l*2mo, — Wood. Barwick.

DUEAKDUS, DE ST. POUKCAIN.

St. Pourcain de Durandus was born in the village of
Pourcain, in the diocese of Clermont, in Auvergne. He
was a preaching monk of the Dominican order, and ac-
quired high reputation. In 1313 he was created doctor
in divinity by the university of Paris, and some time after-
wards obtained the situation of master of the sacred palace
at Rome. In 1318 he was nominated Bishop of Puy;
and in the year 1326 he was translated to the Bishopric of
Meaux, by John XXII. He made himself so famous by
his acuteness and perseverance in discussing the most
difficult topics in scholastic theology, that he obtained
the title of The Most Resolute Doctor. He contributed
much to the downfall of Realism, and the cessation of
those endless logical disputes connected therewith, by
resolving difficulties after a clearer and more precise
manner, and establishing the foundations of a more exact
knowledge of the properties of Object and Subject. He
was at first a Thomist, but subsequently became a can-

DURELL. 519

did adversary of that school. He wrote, Commentaria
Super Libros IV. Sententiarum ; Liber de Origine Juris-
dictionum, seu de ecclesiastica Jurisdictione, and Trac-
tatus de Legibus, 1571, 4to. He died in 1333 — Dupin.
Tennemann.

DCREL, JOHN.

John Durel was born at St. Heliers, in Jersey, in
1625. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, from
whence he removed to Caen, and took his master's de-
gree there in 1646. In 1673 he obtained a prebend
in the cathedral of Salisbury ; and in 1677, being then
doctor in divinity, he was made Dean of Windsor.
He died in 1683. His principal works are — 1. A View
of the Government and Worship of the reformed Church
of England, 4to. 2. Sanctae Ecclesiae Anglicanae ad-
versus iniquas atque inverecundas Schismaticorum cri-
minationes Vindiciae. 3. Theoremata Philosophica, &c.
—Wood.

DURELL, DAVID.

David Durell was a native of Jersey, and born in
1728. He became a student of Pembroke College, Oxford,
where, in 1758, he proceeded master of arts ; after which
he obtained a fellowship in Hertford College, of which
society he became principal. In 1764 he took his doctor s
degree; and in 1767 was made prebendary of Canterbury,
with which he held the vicarage of Tysehurst in Sussex.
He died in 1775. His works are — 1. The Hebrew Text
of the parallel Prophecies of Jacob and Moses, relating
to the Twelve Tribes, 4to. 2. Critical Remarks on the
Books of Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles, 4to. —
Biofj. Brit.

520 DUVAL.

DURHAM, JAMES.

James Durham was born in the county of Angus, in
1622, and educated at St. Andrews. He became very
popular as a preacher at Glasgow. He died in 1658.
His works are — 1. A Commentary on the Revelations.
2. Sermons on Isaiah. 3. Sermons on the Snng of Solo-
mon. 4. A Treatise on Scandal. 5. The Exposition of the
Commandments. — Gen. Diet.

DURY, OR DUR.EUS, JOHN.

John Dury was born in Scotland, but in what place, or
in what year, according to Reid, is not known. He visited
Oxford in 1624 for the sake of the libraries. He devoted
his life to an endeavour to reconcile the various protestant
parties, and was at first encouraged by Archbishop Laud,
Bishop Bedell, and Bishop Hall, by the latter of whom
he was ordained. Mr. Mede also encouraged him. But
Dury was a time-server, and when dissent was in the
ascendant, he joined the rebels, and was one of the
so-called divines at Westminster. He made many jour-
neys, and held many conferences, which ended in no-
thing, and he wrote many books which the world has.
long ceased to read. A long list may be seen in Reid.
The year of his death is not known. — Wood. Reid's West-
minster Divines.

DUVAL, ANDREW.

Andrew Duval, a doctor of the Sorbonne, was born
at Pontoise, in 1564. He defended the opinions of the
ultra-montanes, and was among Richer's greatest adver-
saries. He was superior general of the French Car-
melites, senior of the Sorbonne, and dean of the faculty

EADMER. 521

of theology at Paris. He died in 1638. He wrote De
Suprema Romani Pontificis in Ecclesiam potestate, 1614,
4to ; a Commentary on the summary of St. Thomas, 2 vols,
folio. — Moreri.

EACHARD, JOHN.

John Eachard was born in Suffolk, about 1636. He
was educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he
obtained a fellowship, and in 1660, took his master's
degree. In 1670 he published a book, entitled " The
Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy,"
which was answered by several writers, to whom Eachard
replied with wit and argument. He next attacked Hobbes
in two dialogues, on the state of nature ; written with
exquisite humour. In 1675, he was chosen master of
Catherine Hall, on which he obtained the degree of
doctor in divinity by mandamus. He died in 1697.
His works were published in 1774, in three volumes,
l*2mo, with a life written by Davies. — Life prefio:ed to his
Works.

EADMER.

Eadmer, a celebrated monk of Canterbury, who flour-
ished in the twelfth century, was distinguished as an his-
torian, and as the friend of Archbishop Anselm, and of
his successor Ralph. The time and place of his nativity
is not known. He was the spiritual director of Archbishop
Anselm, who would do nothing without his permission,
and it would seem that he stood in a similar situation to
Archbishop RaljDh, for when Alexander, King of Scotland,
applied to him to recommend a bishop for the vacant see
of St. Andrews, he recommended Eadmer, and in doing
so he said that he was both unwilliug and willing ;
" willing, in so far as we perceive it is God's will, which
3c 2

522 EADMER.

we dare not withstand ; and yet unwilling, for that we are
left alone and deprived of his fellowship, who, as a father,
ministered unto us consolation in time of grief; givingus
sound advice in many perplexed cases, and has been to
us a most helpful brother in this our infirm and old age.
If any other should have required him of us, we would no
more have parted with him than with our own heart ; but
there is nothing which, in God, we can deny you. Thus
we send unto you the person whom you desired ; and so
free, that you may lay on him what charge you will, so as
it be to the honour of God, and the credit of the mother
church of Canterbury. Do, therefore, what you purpose
wisely, and remit him unto us with diligence to be con-
secrated, because delay in that affair may produce impedi-
ments which we desire to avoid." Eadmer was favourably
received in Scotland, and, " with consent of the King,
clergy, and people," made Bishop of St. Andrews. But
he never received consecration ; for iVlexander would not
suffer either of the English Archbishops to perform that
ceremony, lest their doing so should be construed into a
pretence for infringing on the independence of the Scottish
Church. This was far from being agreeable to Eadmer,
who was anxious " for the credit of the mother church
of Canterbury ;" which, he asserts, was " the primacy
of all England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the adjacent
isles," resting this on the authority which Pope Gregory
had given to St. Austin upwards of five hundred years
before. But, as he could not make the King or clergy of
Scotland converts to this opinion, he consented, after
some hesitation, to receive the ring from the hands of
xUexander, in token of his subjection to him ui teiupo-
rulibus ; and of his own accord he took the crosier from
otf the high altar of the church, to show his independence
in sjnritualibus. Matters being thus compromised between
them, it was hoped that every thing would proceed
smoulhly. But Thurstan, Archbishop of York, hearing of
wiicit was going on, put in a claim to consecrate Eadmer,

EADMER. 5-23

and prevailed on the King of England to write both to
the King of Scotland and to the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, to have this measure carried into efTect. And, what
was then of still greater importance, he gained over Pope
Calixtus II. to his interest, who not only commissioned
him and his successors to consecrate the bishops of
St. Andrews, but all the bishops of Scotland, in all time
coming, Jiut it may be observed here, that this was
before the authority of the Bishop of Rome was fully
recognised in Scotland ; and, besides, this order was re-
versed by subsequent popes, whose authority was recog-
nised. Alexander, in the meantime, being equally un-
willing to disoblige the pope and the King of England,
and to acknowledge the supremacy of the English Arch-
bishops, began to grow cold in his behaviour towards the
bishop elect. The latter, finding himself thus uncom-
fortably situated, informed the King that he wished to
take a journey to Canterbury, for the purpose of consulting
the Archbishop relative to his very peculiar situation.
The King told him that he never would consent that any
of his bishops should yield obedience to Canterbury. To
this Eadmer replied vdth some warmth, that he would
not renounce his connexion with Canterbury though he
were to gain the whole kingdom of Scotland. The effect
of this imprudent speech was only to increase Alexander s
irritation, and to render the Bishop's situation more un-
pleasant than it was before ; whereupon he consulted the
Bishop of Glasgow, and two monks of Canterbury who
belonged to his household, how he ought to conduct him-
self under the circumstances of the case. These three went
to court in his name, and, after discovering Alexander's
resolution, told Eadmer that they thought he could no
longer be of any service to the cause of religion in Scotland;
that the King was of an arbitrary temper, and had, besides,
a personal aversion to him ; and that, therefore, he had
better resign his office and return to Canterbury. The
Bishop took their advice, and gave in his resignation,
which was accepted. He returned into the Kings hands

524 EADMER,

the ring which he had received from him, and laid the
crosier upon the altar whence he had taken it. On his
return to Canterbury, he was kindly received by the Arch-
bishop and his brother monks ; but thf-y disapproved of
his stiffness, and thought him too hasty in giving up the
honourable and useful office to which the providence of
God had called him. Nor was it long before he himself
became sensible of this. He, therefore, wrote a long letter
to the King, in which he begins by returning him thanks
for the honour of having fixed upon him for the Bishopric
of St. Andrews, when there were so many men more wor-
thy of it. He then says, that he did not address him out
of any principle of ambition, but because all those whom
he had consulted told him that it was not in his power to
resign the bishopric, nor could any other person lawfully
accept of it while he lived, " But sir," he goes on to say,
" it may Vx) your highness will object, that I threw it
up of my own accord. To this I answer, that what I did
was extorted from me by hard usage ; I perceived the
duties of my office to be impracticable, and, accordingly,
thought proper to give way. But, if your highness would
be pleased to remove these obstructions, and permit me
the privilege of my character, 1 am ready again to under-
take the charge, and observe your commands in everything
not repugnant to the laws of God. J5ul, if your highness
is pleased to refuse me on these terms, I must desist :
God, I question not, will take care of the interests of His
Church, and reward every person according to the quality
of his behaviour. At the same time, that your highness
may not suppose I have any intention to lessen the dig-
nity and prerogative of the crown of Scotland, I promise
not to trouble you again with the conditions formerly
mentioned relating to the King of England and the
Archbishop of Canterbury, but submit to your own terms
as to that affair." What effect this letter had upon the
King is not known, for Eadmer's history breaks off
h(!re ; fj'om which it may be inferred that he died soon

EARLE. 525

after. It in certain, however, that he never returned to
St. Andrews.

Eadmer wrote a history of the aflairs of England, of his
own time, from 1000 to 1122, in which many original
papers are inserted, and many important facts, no \vli(!re
else to be found, preserved. This work has been highly
commended both by old and modern writers, as well for
its correctness, as for the regularity of the composition and
purity of the style. The best edition is that by Selden,
in 102'J. Eadmer wrote the Life of ISt. Anselm, which
has been often printed with the works of that pielate, and
the lives of St. Wilfred, St. Oswald, St. Dunstan, and
others. — Tanner. Bale. Li/ohh St. Andreua. Collier.

EAJILK, oil EAKLKS, .1011 N.

JoTiN Earle was born at York, in 1001. He was en-
tered at J\Ierton College, Oxford, in 1020; became chaplain
to Philip, Earl of Pembroke, and afterwards cha})lain and
tutor to Prince Charles, afterwards Charles II., with whom
he went into exile, and to whom he was (chaplain and
clerk of the closet. lie was on intimate terms with
Walton's friend, Dr. Morley, afterwaids liishop of Win-
chester, and lived a year with him at Anlwerj), in tho
house of Sir Chailes Cotterel, from whence he vsent to
J^'rance, to join James, Duke of York. On the llestoration
he was made Dean of Westminster, in 1002 consecrated
IJishop of Worcester, and in the following year Bishop of
Salisbuij. In 1005 he attend(Ml the; King and Queen,
who had left London on account of the; ])lague, to Oxford.
He di(jd in the same year. Earle wrote a copy of verses
in praise of Beaumont, which is prefixed to the collection
of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. lie translated
into Latin the Eikon Basilike. He also translated into
Latin Hooker's iilcclesiastical Polity, but it was d(;stroyed
by the carelessness of his servants. Mis prin(;i))al work
is his Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the VVoild Dis-

526 EBERUS.

covered, in Essays and Characters; a work of great humour,
and which throws much Hght on the manners of the times.
No less than six editions of it were pubUshed in his hfe-
time. An edition was pubHshed in 1811, at Oxford, by
Mr. Bhss.

Walton says of him, that, since the death of Hooker
*' none have lived whom God hath blest with more inno-
cent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious,
peaceable, primitive temper." — Wood. Salmon. Barwick.

EATON, JOHN.

John Eaton was born in Kent, in 1575, and educated
at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took his master's
degree in 1 GO 3. In 1625, he was presented to the living
of Wickham Market, in Suffolk, and died there in 164 L.
His writings, which approach to Antinomianism, are, —
1. The Discovery of a dead Faith, ISmo. 2. The Honey-
comb of Justification, 4to. For this last he was imprisoned
bv the Long Parliament. — Wood.

EBERUS, PAUL.

Paul Ebeeus, one of the early German reformers, was
born in Franconia, in 1511. He was educated at the
university of Wittemberg, and was employed for some time
as amanuensis by Melancthon, who held him in such high
esteem that he consulted him on all important matters, and
hence he got the name of " Philip's Piepository." He was
appointed professor of Hebrew at Wittemberg in 1556,
and afterwards first pastor of the church there. After the
death of Melancthon, he was regarded as the first of those of
his followers who were called Crypto-Calvinists, from their
being reserved as to their religious views. He was a man
of great learning, and an eloquent preacher. He died in
1589. He wrote, 1. Expositio Evangelior. Dominicalum.

EBION. 527

2. Calendarium Historicum. 3. Historia Populi Judaic!
a reditu Babylonico ad Hierosolymse excidium. 4. Hymni
sacri vernacule editi, which were written for the use of his
church, where they long continued to be sung. — Melchior.
Adam. Moreri.

EBION.

Some have supposed that a person of the name of Ebion
lived about a. d. 72, was a disciple of Cerinthus, preached
the doctrines of his master at Rome and in Asia, and was
the founder of the sect of the Ebionites. Others say that
there was no such person, and that it is merely an ima-
ginaiy name ; and the silence of Irenseus, and the testi-
mony of Eusebius and Origen, render it probable that this
is the case. Nevertheless, the tenets of this sect having
been referred to in modern controversies, the following
account of it is given from Dollinger. He says that the
Ebionites derived their name from the Hebrew word
which signifies poor, on account of their voluntary poverty
and community of goods, for the origin of which they
appealed to the ordinance of the Apostles. They were,
so they taught, the descendants of those w^ho sold their
possessions, and laid them at the Apostles' feet.

According to their doctrines, the birth of Jesus was not
the effect of a miracle, but that on account of His great
virtues He was made worthy to receive the Christ, and to
be called the Son of God. At His baptism in the Jordan,
the heavenly Messias descended upon Him in the form of
a dove, and entered into Him. This Messias, the most
noble of all spirits created by, or emanating from, God,
the ruler of all things, appeared first in Adam ; it mani-
fested itself under veils of flesh to the prophets ; and lastly
united itself with Jesus, after Whose crucifixion and resur-
rection it returned to heaven. To Him was opposed Satan,
to whom the dominion of this lower visible world, as to
the Christ the rule of the future heavenly kingdom, had

5Q8 EBIOX,

been granted by the Supreme Deity. The Ebionites
taught also a certain, though not absolute, Dualism. The
object of the various manifestations of the Christ, was the
founding and establishment of a pure religion; that the
mission of Jesus, after the descent of the Christ upon
Him, was to purify and strengthen Judaism, and to impart
it, in its renewed form, to the Gentiles, as the only source
of salvation. As the Ebionites, as well as the Essenians,
rejected all sacrifices, Jesus is made to speak thus in the
Ebionite gospel : " I am come to destroy sacrifice, and if
you cease not to slay victims, the anger of God shall
remain upon you." They granted only to Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron and Joshua, the dignity of
inspired prophets ; they rejected all others as usurpers of
that sacred name. Whatever displeased them in the
Pentateuch, they considered as additions of later ages.
In other things the Ebionites believed as the Jews; so
that Origen might say of them that they differed in little
from them. They observed circumcision, the Sabbath,
and the other precepts of the law. To justify their
practice of circumcision, they alleged the example of Jesus,
— and citing His words, " It is sufficient for the disciple
to be as his master," — they said, Jesus was circumcised,
be you also circumcised, for circumcision was the seal and
mark of the patriarchs and of all the just, who had lived
according to the law. The Apostle St. Paul they declared
an apostate and deceiver ; they therefore rejected his
works. He was, they said, by birth not a Jew but a
Gentile, and had become a proselyte in the hope of obtain-
ing in marriage the daughter of the high-priest; in his
disappointment and revenge, he wrote against circum-
cision, the Sabbath, and the whole law. St. Peter, and
after him, St. James, the brother of the Lord, were their
ideal of perfection, and both are represented in their
apocryphal books as Jewish ascetics. They themselves
adopted the ascetic life of the ancient Essenians; they
abstained from all flesh, and from all food proceeding
from animals ; they bathed daily in flowing water, to which

EBION. 5'29

they attributed the virtue of purifying them from every
stain ; they refused to take oaths, which they considered
unlawful. They avoided all intercourse with strangers, as
they would have considered themselves thereby defiled.
Celibacy was at first in great esteem amongst them, but
in the time of St. Epiphanius it was no longer prac-
tised ; they then recommended early marriage, and
permitted divorce and second espousals. They had elders
and synagogues, baptism and sacred evening meals, at
which they drank only water, which, according to
St. Epiphanius, they honoured as almost divine. They
forbade the use of wine, as being the production of an
evil principle.

The Ebionites had their own gospel, which they named
*' The Gospel of the Hebrews." If it be true that the
gospel of St, Matthew was the foundation of this book, it
had been modified by great changes and frequent omis-
sions, to suit the principles of the sect. The subject of
the first and second chapters of St. Matthew was wanting;
the circumstances attending the baptism of our Saviour
were disfigured ; and, as they rejected the use of animal
food, instead of what we read in Luke xxii. 15, they wrote,
" Have I ever at any time desired to eat the paschal lamb
with you ?" Amongst other apocryphal works, they pos-
sessed also a history of the Apostles, and a doctrinal work
attributed to St. James, in which he is made to inveigh
against the temple and sacrifices, against the sacred fire,
and the altar of incense. They had also a book of the
*' Travels of St. Peter." Either this, or another work of
the same nature, was known under the name of the
" Clementine Homilies," and contained the pretended
travels of St. Clement with the Apostle St. Peter, the
instructions delivered by the latter, and his disputations
with Simon Magus, and the philosopher Appian. This
work, which was written in the second century, evidently
contained the principles of the Ebionite doctrines, but
with some modifications ; whence we may conclude, that
they are the doctrines of a sect of Ebionites differing from

VOL. IV. 0 D

530 EBION.

those described by St. Epiphanius. According to this
book, there exists a primitive religion, which, from the
beginning, was announced by Adam, the first of the pro-
phets ; then by the patriarchs, and by Moses : but was
afterwards disfigured by the admission of many strange
additions made in writing. To restore this religion to its
primeval purity, and to separate that which was false from
that which was true, contained in the pentateuch, was the
object of the coming of Christ. His doctrine was therefore
no more than the ancient Mosaic law, as the divine spirit
which appeared in Adam and Moses, was the same which
dwelt in Jesus. From this cause, the disciple of Moses
was equal to the disciple of Christ, each should respect
the other, and confess that both were equally in the pos-
session of the truth In this system, Christ is accounted
only as a prophet or teacher ; His sacrifice of redemption
is not mentioned, and His death is considered as purely
accidental. The Apostle St. Paul is not named throughout
the entire work, although there are several polemical allu-
sions to his writings. In this we can easily perceive an
uniformity of teaching in the Clementine Homilies with
the doctrines of the sect of Ebionites, of which St. Epipha-
nius has written, as also in the rejection of the divinity of
Christ, in the belief of His birth according to the ordinary
laws of nature, in the condemnation of sacrifices and oaths,
in their esteem of daily bathings, and in the declaration
that the pentateuch had been falsified by interpolations.
We find also the dualism of the Ebionites, their disregard
of the prophets, all of whom, they rejected, except Adam,
and the patriarch Moses, and Jesus. Of the Apostles,
none are named but Peter and James, the latter of whom
they extolled as an observer of the law in its purity, to
whom was given the power of proving and confirming all
other apostles or teachers. The author of the Clementines
considers the Mosaic law as limited in its destination; it
is holy, but exacts not observance from all ; the Gentile
need follow only tlie doctrines of Jesus; he may not, how-
ever, hate or despise Moses, or his law. Finally, it is

ECHARD. 531

worthy of remark, that the late origin of the doctrine, and
of the sect which professed it, may be learned from the
internal evidence of the work. — Moshelm. DolUnger.

ECHARD, LAURENCE.

Laurence Echard was born in Suffolk, about 1671.
He took his degree of B.A. at Christ's College, Cam-
bridge, in 1691 ; and took orders, and was presented
to the livings of Welton and Elkinton, in Lincolnshire.
In 1707 he became prebendary of Lincoln and chap-
lain to the bishop of the diocese, was installed Archdeacon
of Stowe in 1712, and was presented about 1722, by
George the Second, to the livings of Rendlesham, Sud-
borne, and Alford, in Suffolk. He died in 1730. He
wrote, 1. The History of Rome to Augustus ; the fourth
edition of which was published in 1692. 2. The History
of the Empire from Augustus to Constantino ; the second
edition of which was published in 1699. 3. An Ecclesi-
astical History from the Nativity of Christ to Constantine,
1702. The sixth edition of this was published in 1722,
and was regarded by Dean Prideaux as the best of the
kind then in the English language. 4. A Complete His-
tory of England from the earliest times to the death of
William III. In this work are embodied the writings of
some of our ancient historians, and much valuable infor-
mation is given with reference to our history about the
period of the Revolution. There is one thing in it which
has made him and his history notorious : he has given a
contract made in form between Oliver Cromwell and the
Devil, which he says was so strongly attested, that he
thought himself obliged to insert it. 6. Maxims and
Discourses of Tillotson, 1719. 7. History of the Revolution
of 1688. 8. A Gazetteer, the eleventh edition of which was
pubHshed in 1716. 9. A Description of Ireland, 1691. He
also translated three plays of Plautus, and had a share
in the translation of Terence. — Biog. Brit, Bowling.

532 ECK.

ECK, OR ECKIUS, JOHN.

John Eck was bora in Suabia in 1483, the son of a
peasant. He was professor and vice-chancellor of Ingold-
stadt, having established a high character for talent and
learning. He was, says Ranke, one of the most eminent
scholars of his time — a reputation which he had spared
no pains to acquire. He visited the most celebrated pro-
fessors in various universities : the Thomist Sustern at
Cologne, the Scotists Sumenhard and Scriptoris at Tubin-
gen ; he attended the law lectures of Zasius in Freiburg,
those on Greek of Reuchlin, on Latin of Bebel, on cos-
mography of Reusch. In his twentieth year he began to
write and to lecture at Ingolstadt upon Occam and Biel's
canon law, on Aristotle's dialectics and physics, the most
difficult doctrines of dogmatic theology, and the subtilties
of nominalistic morality ; he then proceeded to the study
of the mystics, whose most curious works had just fallen
into his hands : he set himself, as he says, to establish
the connexion between their doctrines and the Orphico-
platonic philosophy, the sources of which are to be sought
in Egypt and Arabia, and to discuss the whole in five
parts. He was one of those learned men vrho held that
the great questions which had occupied men's minds were
essentially settled ; who worked exclusively with the ana-
lytical faculty and the memory ; who were always on the
watch to appropriate to themselves a new subject with
which to excite attention, to get advancement, and to
secure a life of ease and enjoyment. His strongest taste
was for disputation, in which he had made a brilliant
figure in all the universities we have mentioned, as well
as in Heidelberg, Mainz, and Basle : at Freiberg he had
early presided over a class (the Bursa zum Pfauen) where
the chief business was practice in disputation ; he then
took long journeys, — for example, to Vienna and Bologna,
expressly to dispute there. It is most amusing to see in
his letters the satisfaction with which he speaks of his
Italian journey : how he was encouraged to undertake it

ECK. 533

by a papal nuncio ; how, before his departure, he was
visited by the young Margrave of Brandenburg ; the very
honourable reception he experienced on his way, in Italy
as well as in Germany, from both spiritual and temporal
lords, who invited him to their tables ; how, when certain
young men had ventured to contradict him at one of these
dinners, he had confuted them with the utmost ease, and
left them filled with astonishment and admiration ; and
lastly, how, in spite of manifold opposition, he had at last
brought the most learned of the learned in Bologna to
subscribe to his maxims. He regarded a disputation with
the eye of a practised fencer, as the arena of unfailing
victory; his only wish was to find new adversaries on
whom to try his weapons

Dr. Eck at one period of life had contracted a friend-
ship with Martin Luther, who sent him his Theses
against Aristotle, one of his earliest works ; at that time
Luther called him his " very learned and ingenious
friend." It does not appear that Eck took any notice of
this work, but he attacked Luther in his Obelisks.
Eespecting this attack, Luther writing to a friend in 1518,
expressed his feelings as follows : "a scholar of excellent
and truly ingenious erudition and erudite genius, and,
what hurts me still more, a person bound to me by a
strong and recent friendship, has lately composed certain
' Obelisks' against my Propositions — I mean the distin-
guished John Eck ; and if 1 were ignorant of the devices
of Satan I should be surprised at the fury, with which he
has broken a new and very delightful friendship, without
warning, without communication, without so much as
bidding me farewell. He has written these Obelisks,
however, in which he calls me drunkard, Bohemian,
heretic, seditious, impertinent, rash, besides a number of
lighter reproaches, such as somnolent, silJy, illiterate, and,
above all, despiser of the sovereign pontiff. In a word,
he has uttered nothing but the blackest calumnies, expres-
sing my name, and marking my positions. His Obelisks
contain nothing but malice and the rust of a raging mind."
3d 2

534 ECK.

Dr. Eck's excuse was, that the Obelisks were not
intended for publication, but were composed only as a con-
fidential communication, and for the private satisfaction
of his Bishop. The Obelisks were attacked by Carolostadt
in certain theses, four-hundred and six in number ; Eck
replied, and Carolostadt rejoined. Against this w^ork
Luther also wrote, without at the moment publishing,
some animadversions, as strong in their language as that
used by Eck, under the title of Asterisks.

Eck seems to have suffered some dissatisfaction that his
polemical writings had procured him neither endow-
ment nor honour, and he desired to renew, in a more
conspicuous manner, his controversy with Carolostadt
concerning Grace and free-will. Luther and Eck met
on friendly terms, and through his mediation Carolostadt
consented to dispute with Eck in Erfurt or Leipsic ; upon
which Eck immediately published a prospectus of the
disputation, and made it known as widely as possible.

Luther's astonishment was extreme when he saw in this
prospectus certain opinious announced as the subject of
the debate, of which he was far moue the champion than
Carolostadt. He held this for an act of faithlessness and
duplicity which he was called upon openly to resist ; and
he was determined to take up the gauntlet himself.

It was of vast importance that Eck had annexed to the
dogmatic controversy, a proposition as to the origin of the
prerogatives of the papacy. At a moment when anti-papal
opinions were so decidedly triumphant throughout the
nation, he had the clumsy servility to stir a question,
always of very difficult and dubious solution, yet upon
which the whole system of the church and state depended,
and, when once agitated, certain to occupy universal atten-
tion : he ventured to irritate an adversary who knew no
reservations, who was accustomed to defend his opinions
to the uliuost, and who had ahciidy the voice of the nation
on his side. In reference to a forujer assertion of Luther's,
which had attracted little attention, Eck propounded the
maxiiii, that tlic primacy of the Pope of Rome was derived

ECK. 535

from Christ Himself, and from the times of St. Peter;
not, as his opponent had hinted, from those of Constantino
and Sylvester. The consequences of this gross imprudence
were soon apparent. Luther, who now began to study the
original documents of the papal law — the decretals, and
had often in the course of this study felt his Christian
convictions wounded, answered with a much bolder asser-
tion, namely, that the primacy of Rome had been first
established by the decretals of the later popes in the last
four centuries (he meant, perhaps, since Gregory VII.),
and that the primitive church knew nothing of it.

It is not surprising that the ecclesiastical authorities in
Saxony, (for example, the Bishop of Merseburg) and even
the theologians of the university, were not much pleased
that a disputation of the kind at last agreed upon between
the parties, should be held at Leipsic. Even the elector
hesitated for a moment whether he should allow Luther
to go. But as he had the firmest conviction that hidden
truth would be best brought to light in this manner, he
at length determined that it should take place, and endea-
voured to obviate every objection that stood in its way.

The polemics, Eck and Carolostadt, (See his Life)
together with Luther, arrived at Leipsic on the '^-ith
of June, 1519; a kind of literary Tournament taking
place, Eck seeking to gratify his vanity, and thinking
only of the immediate triumph, the Reformers looking to
the results which would ensue from the mere mooting of
the questions about to be stated. The 27 th was the day
fixed for the commencement of the discussion. In the
morning the parties met in the hall of the university, and
thereafter walked in procession to the church of St.
Thomas, where high mass was celebrated by the order and
at the expense of the duke. After service, those present
proceeded to the ducal castle. At their head walked Duke
George, and the Duke of Pomerania ; next came counts,
abbots, knights, and other persons of distinction; and
lastly, the doctors of the two parties. A guard composed
of seventy-six citizens, carrying halberds, accompanied the

636 ECK.

procession, with colours flying, and drums beating, and
halted at the castle gate.

On the arrival at the palace, each took his place in the
hall where the debate was to take place — Duke George,
the hereditary Prince John, Prince George of Anhalt, a
boy of twelve, and the Duke of Pomerania, occupying the
seats allotted to them..

Mosellanus, by order of the duke, mounted a pulpit, to
remind the theologians of the manner in which the dis-
cussion was to be carried on. " If you begin to quarrel,"
said the orator to them, " what difference will there be
between a theological disputant and a swaggering duellist ?
What is victory here but just to recall a brother from his

error? Each, it would seem, should be more desirous

to be conquered than to conquer."

At the conclusion of the address, sacred music echoed
along the aisles of the Pleissenberg, the \vhole assembly
knelt down, and the ancient hymn of invocation to the
Holy Spirit, " Veni, Sancte Spiritus," was sung.

The discussion between Eck and Carolostadt lasted
seventeen days ; for an account of the combatants the reader
is referred to the life of Carolostadt. It w^as on the doctrine
of grace and free-will. The proceedings are briefly de-
scribed by Dean Waddington, whose account of the dispu-
tants agrees with that which is given from Pianke in the
life of Carolostadt. Of Carolostadt, he says, that his de-
meanour was composed and serious ; and he had the
appearance of one contending with no selfish motive for
what he sincerely deemed the truth. But his figure was
insignificant and his voice disagreeable. He was in tem-
per irritable, yet laborious in mind and in manner ; and
by reference to books, which he at first required permission
to use, he threatened to throw an unusual tediousness
into no very lively description of controversy. Eck was
possessed of more powerful, or at least more popular
talents ; he was deeply versed in all the arts and expedi-
ents of the schools ; he was familiar with all the points in
dispute, and all the turns which the argument might take.

ECK. 537

The readiness of his retentive memory, supported by great
boldness of assertion, insulted the slow and scrupalous
deliberation of his opponent, while his commanding sta-
ture, his overbearing voice and manner, his uninterrupted
fluency, his violent gesticulation, his imperious and im-
movable confidence and self-complacency, completed the
picture of an irrefragable polemic.

The proposition of Carolostadt on which this contro-
versy turned was expressed with apparent simplicity : That
every good work is altogether from God — orane bonum
opus totum esse a Deo. It comprehended, however, in
its consequences, the efficacy of grace, the entire impotence
of the human will ; in short, the extreme doctrine that
our degenerate and corrupted nature is not in any way
accessory to salvation, either by doing any good action, or
even by preparing the soul to receive or to merit the grace
unto salvation. He admitted that it possesses a natural
power to act and will, but he maintained that the moral
power to do good actions proceeds entirely from grace ;
that it does in no manner co-operate with grace ; that in
the reception of grace it is purely passive ; but that after-
wards, when it has been regenerated by this gift of God,
it employs it, through the continued aid and direction of
the Holy Spirit, in the performance of good works. This
doctrine he confirmed especially by the authority of
St. Augustine and St. Paul — of the former where he says,
"It is certain that it is we who will; but it is God
who makes us will, who operates the will within us. It
is certain too that it is we who act ; but it is God who
makes us act, in giving power and efficacy to the will :"
of the latter, in his Epistle to the Philipians : " It is
God Which worketh in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure."

The fundamental proposition of Garolostadt was met by
his opponent indirectly. Eok advanced. That every good
work is from God, but not altogether — orane opus bonura
esse a Deo, sed non totaliter ; and he defended this dis-
tinction by some irrelevant sophistry. His meaning.

538 ECK.

however, was this ; that grace must first excite the will,
but that it does no more than this ; that the latter retains
its freedom and acts with perfect independence ; that it
can give or withhold its consent ; and that, according to
such consent or refusal, the grace vouchsafed becomes
efficacious or fruitless towards conversion.

These doctrines, with their real or imputed senses and
consequences, were contested during several following days
with much heat and perseverance.

Hitherto Eck had seemed to triumph, and Luther had
assisted at the disputation as a silent spectator; on
Monday the 4th of July, however, Eck had the pleasure of
coming into collision with the antagonist whom he most
ardently desired to meet, and whose rising fame he hoped
to crush by a brilliant victory. Alas ! for the vanity of
human hopes ; the name of Eck would have been un-
known, unless it had been connected with the greater
name of Luther. When the discussion commenced, it
was immediately obvious that Luther could not maintain
his assertion, that the pope's primacy dated only from the
last four centuries : he soon found himself forced from this
position by ancient documents, and the rather, that no
criticism had as yet shaken the authenticity of the false
decretals. But his attack on the doctrine, that the pri-
macy of the pope (whom he still persisted in regarding as
the ecumenical bishop) w^as founded on Scripture and by
divine right, was far more formidable. Christ's words,
" Thou art Peter, feed my sheep," which have always
been cited in this controversy, were brought forward :
Luther laboured to support the already well-known explan-
ation of them, at variance with that of the curia, by other
passages which record similar commissions given to the
Apostles. Eck quoted passages from the Fathers in sup-
port of his opinions, to which Luther opposed others from
the same source. As soon as they got into these more
recondite regions, Luther's superiority became incontes-
tible. One of his main arguments was, that the Greeks
had never acknowledged the pope, and yet had not been

ECK. 539

proDOunced heretics ; the Greek church had stood, was
standing, and would stand, without the pope ; it belonged
to Christ as much as the Roman. Eck did not hesitate
at once to declare that the Christian and the Roman
Church were one ; that the Churches of Greece and Asia
had fallen awaj, not only from the pope, but from the
Christian faith — they were unquestionably heretics : in
the whole circuit of the Turkish empire, for example,
there was not one soul that could be saved, with the ex-
ception of the few who adhered to the pope of Rome.
" How ?" said Luther, " would you pronounce damnation
on the whole Greek Church, which has produced the most
eminent fathers, and so many thousand saints, of whom
not one had even heard of a Roman primate ? Would
Gregoiy of Nazianzen, would the great Basil, not be
saved ? or would the pope and his satellites drive them
out of heaven ?" These expressions prove how greatly the
omnipotence and exclusive validity of the forms of the
Latin Church, and the identity with Christianity which
she claimed, were shaken by the fact that, beyond her
pale, the ancient Greek Church, which she had herself
acknowledged, stood in all the venerable authority of her
great teachers. It was now Eck's turn to be hard pressed :
he repeated that there had been many heretics in the
Greek church, and that he alluded to them, not to the
Fathers, — a miserable evasion, which did not in the least
touch the assertion of his adversary. Eck felt this, and
hastened back to the domain of the Latin church. He
particularly insisted that Luther's opinion, — that the pri-
macy of Rome was of human institution, and not of divine
right, — was an error of the poor brethren of Lyons, of
Wicklifie and Huss, but had been condemned by the
popes, and especially by- the general councils wherein
dwelt the Spirit of God, and recently at that of Constance.
This new fact was as indisputable as the former. Eck
was not satisfied with Lutlier's declaration that he had
nothing to do with the Bijhemians, nay, that he con-
demned their schism ; and that he would not be answered

540 ECK.

out of the Collectanea of inquisitors, but out of the Scrip-
tures. The question had now arrived at its most critical
and important moment. Did Luther acknowledge the
direct influence of the Divine Spirit over the Latin
Church, and the binding force of the decrees of her
councils, or did he not? Did he inwardly adhere to
her, or did he not ? We must recollect that we are here
not far from the frontier of Bohemia ; in a land which, in
consequence of the anathema pronounced in Constance,
had experienced all the horrors of a long and desolating
war, and had placed its glory in the resistance it had
offered to the Hussites : at a university founded in oppo-
sition to the spirit and doctrine of John Huss : in the
face of princes, lords, and commoners whose fathers had
fallen in this struggle ; it was said, that delegates from
the Bohemians, who had anticipated the turn which this
conflict must take, were also present : Luther saw the
danger of his position. Should he really reject the pre-
vailing notion of the exclusive power of the Roman Church
to secure salvation ; oppose a council by which John Huss
had been condemned to the flames, and perhaps draw
down a like fate upon himself? Or should he deny that
higher and more comprehensive idea of a Christian
Church which he had conceived, and in which his whole
soul lived and moved ? Luther did not waver for a mo-
ment. He had the boldness to affirm, that among the
articles on which the council of Constance grounded its
condemnation of John Huss, some were fundamentally
Christian and evangelical. The assertion was received
with universal astonishment. Duke George, who was
present, put his hands to his sides, and shaking his head
uttered aloud his wonted curse, "A plague upon it!"
Eck now gathered fresh courage. It was hardly possible,
he said, that Luther could censure a council, since his
Grace the Elector had expressly forbidden any attack
upon councils. Luther reminded him that the council of
Constance had not condemned all the articles of Huss as
heretical, and sj^ecified some which were likewise to be

ECK. 541

found in St. Augustine. Eck replied that all were reject-
ed ; the sense in which these particular articles were
understood was to be deemed heretical; for a council
could not err. Luther answered that no council could
create a new article of faith ; how then could it be main-
tained that no council whatever was subject to error?
" Reverend father," replied Eck, " if you believe that a
council regularly convoked can err, you are to me as a
heathen and a publican."

Immediately after the conclusion of the disputation,
Eck addressed, on the 23rd of July, a letter to the Elector
of Saxony, exhorting him to discourage the pernicious
doctrines of his professor, and to cause his books to be
burnt. Frederick replied with some delay and great
moderation ; Luther and Carolostadt with controversial
bitterness. In February, 1520, Eck also completed a
treatise on the primacy, in which he promises triumphantly
and clearly to confute Luther's assertion, *' that it is not
of divine right," and also to set forth various other rare
and notable things, collected with great labour, partly
from manuscripts which he had most diligently collated.
*' Observe, reader," says he, " aud thou shalt see that I
keep my word." Nor is his work by any means devoid of
learning and talent; it is an armouiy of very various
weapons ; but it affords the most distinct evidence of the
importance of this controversy to science, independent of
all theological considerations, and of the profound dark-
ness in which all true and critical history still lay buried.
Eck assumes, without the slightest hesitation, that Peter
resided twenty-five years at Rome, and was a perfect pro-
totype of all succeeding popes ; whereas, historical criticism
has shown that it is a matter of doubt whether the Apos-
tle ever was at Rome at all : he finds cardinals, and even
under that title, as early as the .year 770, and assigns the
rank and functions of cardinal to St. Jerome. In the
second book, he adduces the testimony of the fathers of
the church in support of the divine right of the pope, and
places at their head Dionysius Areopagita, whose works

VOL. IV. 3 E

542 ECK.

are, unfortunately, spurious. Among his favourite docu-
ments are the decretals of the elder popes, from which
much certainly is derived that we should not otherwise be
inclined to believe ; the only misfortune is, that they are
altogether forgeries. He reproaches Luther with under-
standing nothing whatever of the old councils ; the sixth
canon of the council of Nice, from w^hich Luther deduced
the equality of the ancient patriarchate, he intei'prets in a
totally different manner ; but here again he had the ill luck
to rest his arguments on the spurious canon, which belongs
not to the Nicene, but the Sardicene, synod. And so on.

When Eck perceived that he was making no progress
towards his object by angry controversies, which followed
the disputation of Leipsic, he thought to accelerate the
catastrophe by his presence at Rome. Accordingly, under
some plea of personal business, he went thither in the
beginning of 1520, burning with apostolical zeal. He
found there a numerous party, composed for the most part
of Dominicans, who were as anxious as himself for the
excommunication of Luther. His exhortations animated
them ; and by the assiduous employment of every sort of
expedients, they at length prevailed upon the pope to
summon a congregation on that subject. Gaetan and
Prierias were among the members of this body, as well as
the Professor of Ingolstadt ; and as it was moved by one
spirit, it began with perfect unanimity by passing sentence
of condemnation upon Luther.

It is extraordinary as an act of indiscretion, on the part
of Leo X., that he should appoint as his nuncio for the
promulgation of his bull in Germany, none other than
Eck himself. Elated by the most selfish vanity, Eck
accepted the office as an honour and triumph, and set out
with puerile exultation, to inflict, as he thought, a fatal
blow ou his devoted adversary. He instantly hastened, says
Ptanke, to the scene of the conflict, and, in the month of
September, caused the bull to be fixed up in public places
in Meissen, Mcrseburg, and Brandenburg. Meanwhile
Alt-ander descended the PJiine for the same purpose.

ECK. n43

It is said, and with perfect truth, that they did not
every where meet with the best reception ; but the arms
they wielded were still extremely terrible. Eck had re-
ceived the unheard of permission to denounce any of the
adherents of Luther at his pleasure, when he published
the bull , a permission, which, it will readily be believed,
he did not allow to pass unused. In October, 1520,
Luther's books were seized in all the booksellers' shops of
Ingolstadt, and sealed. Moderate as was the Elector of
Mainz, he was obliged to exclude from his court Uhich
von Hutten, who had been ill received in the Netherlands,
and to throw the printer of his writings into prison.

But though this storm raged far and wide, it passed
harmless over the spot which it was destined to destroy.
Wittenberg was unscathed ; Eck had indeed instructions,
if Luther did not submit, to execute on him the menaces
of the bull, with the aid of the surrounding princes and
bishops. He had been authorized to punish as a heretic
the literary adversary whom he was unable to overcome;
a commission against which the natural instinct of mo-
rality so strongly revolted, that it more than once endan-
gered Ecks personal safety, and which, moreover, it was
found impossible to execute.

What Eck regarded at first as the most triumphant,
was in fact the most humiliating portion of his life. He
was more respectable when acting as the champion of
Rome, than when employed as the minister of her ven-
geance. His unwearied zeal, says Dean Waddington,
hurried him into every field where the Reformers were
encamped. Every where he contendi'd with force and
energVs and, on more than one occasion, with success.
Germany vvas his usual arena, where the brunt of the
controversy was almost invariably sustained by him, while
the proud and pampered dignitaries sat hj, the silent
representatives of the wealth and ignorance of their church.
But in Switzerland his voice was likewise heard ; and
there, indeed, the papal interests were never upheld by
any advocate of any talents or distinction, except, himself

544 ECK.

and Faber. Thus was he confronted in a long series of
combats, during a space of twenty years, with all the chief-
tains of the Reformation : and though he was defending
what we are wont to consider the feebler cause, he never
defended it feebly, or was overthrown with shame.

For the details relating to his various controversies with
the Reformers, we must refer the reader to the lives of
Luther and Melancthon, as it is difficult to separate his
share in the contest from that in which others participated.
Dr. Waddington remarks, that he was not recompensed
with any ecclesiastical dignity or emolument ; but Sleidan
expressly says that both he and Faber demanded and
obtained a reward from the Romish princes for their exer-
tions, though he does not mention what the reward of Eck
was : it was probably not in dignities but in wealth, as
the witty remark of Erasmus is applied to both, " that
poor Luther made many rich."

Eck died at the age of fifty-seven, in February, 1543.
His last composition was his censure on the imperial
** Book," propounded at Ratisbon. Many others he had
published, in the course of his earlier controversies, on
the disputed subjects — on the mass, on penance, on con-
fession and satisfaction, as well as a commentary on the
prophet Haggai and some homilies. But that which
obtained for him the greatest praise and performed the
best service for his cause, was entitled " The Manual of
Controversies." This was a particular apology for all the
disputed tenets and practices of the Church of Rome. It
supplied the accustomed arguments, so plausible to ordi-
nary or prejudiced minds, against the principles of heresy
and heretics. It treated the entire series of the subjects
contested, from the sacrifice of the mass down to tithes,
annates and canonical hours, and it treated them with
ingenuity and address ; and it was as useful to the one
party, as were the " Common Places" of Melancthon to

the other. Sleidan. Seckedorf. Ranke. Waddington.

D'Anh'ujmj.

EDMUND. 545

EDMUND, ST.

Edmund Rich, commonly called St. Edmund, was
born at Abingdon, in Berkshire. He was educated, first
at the university of Paris, and afterwards at University
College, Oxford. He is said to have been the first who
taught logic at Oxford. Having become a respectable
theologian, he applied himself to preaching, in which
he took great pains, especially in the counties of Oxford,
Gloucester, and Worcester, until he was made treasurer
of Salisbury. After the death of Richard Wethershed,
Archbishop of Canterbury, the monks of Canterbury
elected in his stead Ralph Nevill, Bishop of Chichester,
chancellor of England, a man high in favour with the
King. Gregory IX., however, refused to sanction the
appointment, and requested the monks that were at
Rome to choose Edmund, the treasurer of Salisbury ;
and though they refused to take any steps in the matter
without conference with their brethren, and ascertaining
the pleasure of their prince, Henry III., he sent the pall
to England without more ado to Edmund. The King
and the convent not objecting, Edmund was consecrated
in 1-234.

He maintained his character for zeal and piety when
he was elevated to the metropolitan see, and laboured
hard to correct the abuses which popery had introduced
into our Church. His constitutions are published under
the date of 1236, and are of the nature of what would
now be called an episcopal charge ; they are here given
as illustrating the character of the medieval Church.

1. By the power of the Holy Ghost, we in the first place
strictly charge all ministers of the Church, especially
priests, diligently to examine themselves by the testimony
of their own conscience, in what state, and for what end
they entered into orders. For we denounce them in
general suspended from their office, who contracied an
irregularity at the time of their entering into ordors or

VOL. IV. 3 F

516 EDMUND.

before, or since, unless they are expressly dispensed with
by them that have power to dispense. We conceive them
to be irregular as to the premises, who have committed
murder, or have been advocates in causes of blood, simo-
niacs, transactors of simoniacal bargains, or who knowingly
received orders from such as were under that blemish, or
that were ordained by schismatics, heretics, or such as
were excommunicated by name, such as have been twice
married, or married to such as were not virgins, corrupters
of nuns, excommunicates, such as get orders by stealth,
sorceries, burners of churches, and such like. For it is
certain, according to the traditions of the holy fathers,
that they who being irregular do, without dispensation
perform their ministrations, do it with presumption, and
danger.

2. We add our strict charge, that all who take orders,
while they remain under an habitual impenitence for
mortal sin committed before, or only for temporal gain, do
not execute their office till they confess to the priest.

3. It hath been ordained in a general council, that
clerks, especially they in holy orders, who being suspended
for their incontinence, do yet presume to officiate, be not
only deprived of their ecclesiastical benefices, but for ever
deposed for their double crime, that a temporal punish-
ment may restrain them, whom the fear of God doth not
restrain. Let prelates, who countenance such in that
wickedness be liable to the same punishment, especially
if they do it for the sake of money, or temporal gain.
Therefore it concerns you the archdeacons, officials and
deans, to increase your diligence in proportion to the dan-
ger which attends them that are guilty of neglect.

4. Let priests' concubines be monished by the arch-
deacons, and especially by the priests, within whose parishes
they dwell, that they either marry, or go into a cloister, or
make their repentance as public as their crime. He who
for the sake of money, or acquaintance, neglects this whole-
some warning, shall be subject to the punishment now

EDMUND. 547

mentioned. If these [women] can be brought to neither
by monition ; after they have first been denied the kiss of
peace, and the bread blessed in the Church, let them,
and such as communicate with them be excommunicated,
in order to be delivered to secular justice, unless they
repent.

5. A great necessity of following peace lies on us, my
s(ms, since God Himself is the author, and lover of peace,
Who came to reconcile not only heavenly, but earthly
beings ; and eternal peace cannot be obtained, without
temporal and internal peace. We admonish, and strictly
charge you, that having peace, as far as lies in you, with
all men, you exhort your parishioners to be one body in
Christ, by the unity of faith, and by the bond of peace ;
that you compose all differences that arise in your parish,
with all diligence, that you sodder up breaches, reclaim,
as far as you can, the litigious, and not suffer the sun to
go down upon the indignation of your parishioners.

6. We wholly forbid clergymen the ill practice, by which
all that drink together are obliged to equal draughts, and
he carries away the credit, who hath made most drunk,
and taken off the largest cups : therefore we forbid all
forcing to drink : let him that is culpable be suspended
from office, and benefice, according to the statutes of the
council, unless upon admonition from his superior, he
make competent satisfaction. We forbid the publication
of Scottales, to be made by priests. If any priest, or clerk
do this, or be present at Scottales, let him be canonically
punished.

7. Because some laymen, out of an heretical leaven
under pretence of Catholic piety endeavour to break a
custom commendable in regard to the Church : now as we
charge no wicked exactions to be made on these occa-
sions ; so we charge the pious and laudable customs to be
observed, as it has been ordained in a council. Let not a
corpse be deferred to be buried on account of the fee.
But after the burial, if any thing be given, let it be
accepted as an alms.

548 > EDMUND.

8. Farther we forbid the selling of masses, and charge
laymen and others to give, or bequeath nothing in their
wills for annals, or trentals of masses : and we forbid any
bargains to be made by priests, or other transactors,
directly or indirectly for this purpose. And we prohibit
under pain of suspension, that priests do at any time bur-
den themselves with an immoderate number of annals,
which they are not able honestly to discharge, and there-
fore must hire at a certain price mercenary priests, or
else sell them to be performed by others, for their own
acquittal.

9. Let baptismal fonts be kept under lock and key for
[fear of] sorcery, as also the chrism, and the holy oil. If
he, who has the charge of them be negligent in this point,
let him be suspended from his office for three months.
And if any wickedness have happened through his neglect,
let him be liable to greater punishment.

10. In every baptismal church, let there be a baptistery
of stone, or however one that is sufficient, handsomely
covered, and reverently kept, and not used for any other
purposes. Let not the water, in which a child has been
baptized, be kept in the baptistery above seven days. If
a child in case of necessity have been baptized by a lay-
man at home, let that water, in honour to baptism, be
either thi'own into the fire, or carried to church in order
to be poured into the baptistery ; and let the vessel, [in
which baptism was performed] be burnt, or deputed to
the use of the Church.

11. Let the priest always diligently inquire of the lay-
man, who has baptized a child in case of necessity, what
he said, and what he did : and if he find by full evidence,
that he did clearly perform baptism in the form of the
Church, let him approve the fact, whether he did it in
Latin, French, or English : but if not let him baptize the
child, as ought to be done according to the form of the
Church.

12. We charge that deacons presume not to administer
penances, or baptism, but when the priest is not able, or

EDMUND. 549

not present, or stupidly unwilling, and death is imminent
to the child, or sick person. But if a child be baptized
by a layman, let what goes before the immersion, and
what follows after, be fully supplied by the priest.

13. Let the chrysoms be made use of for the ornaments
of the Church only : let the other ornaments of the Church
which have been blest by the Bishop, be applied to no
common use. And let the archdeacon in his visitation
diligently inquire, whether this be observed.

14. If it be certain that the woman in child-birth is
dead, let her be cut open in case the child be thought to
be alive ; but let care be taken that the mouth of the
woman be held open.

15. Let women be admonished to nurse children with
caution, and not lay them near themselves by night, while
they are young, lest they be overlaid ; nor leave them
alone in a house where there is fire or water, without one
to look after them; and let them be reminded of this
every Lord's-day.

16. The priest at confession, is to have his face and
eyes looking toward the ground, not in the countenance
of the penitent, especially if it be a woman : and let him
patiently hear whatever she says, and support her in the
spirit of lenity, and persuade her by all ways and means
to make a full confession ; otherwise the confession is none
at all. Let him enquire after usual sins, but not after
unusual, unless it be at a distance, and indirectly ; that
such as know may be put into a method of confessing,
and such as do not know, may not have an opportunity of
learning to sin. Let not the priest ask the names of the
persons with whom the penitent hath sinned : but after
confession, he may enquire whether he were a clerk or a
layman, a monk, priest, or deacon : and let the greater
crimes be reserved [to be confessed] to superiors ; such are
murder, sacrilege, sins against nature, incest, deflowering
of virgins and nuns. Laying violent hands on parents,
and clergymen. Breach of vows and the like. But there
are cases in which the pope alone, or his legate has power

550 EDMUND.

of absolving. Yet at the hour of death absolution is to be
denied to none ; but upon a condition, that thej present
themselves to the apostolical presence if they recover ; yet
they who are guilty of such crimes are always to be sent to
the bishop, or his penitentiary. And let the persons thus
sent bring with them letters containing the quality and
circumstances of the sin ; or let the priest come with them,
else let them not be admitted.

17. Let there be two or three men in every deanery,
who have God before their eyes, to denounce the public
excesses of prelates or other clergymen, at the command
of the archbishop or his official.

18. We forbid any man to detain a pledge, after he has
received the principal out of the profits, after a deduction
of expenses : for that is usury.

19. Let sorcerers, such as invoke the help of devils,
such as abuse sacraments, and sacramentals, or convert
them to profane uses, incendiaries, rapperees, such as
maliciously obstruct the executions of reasonable testa-
ments be generally with solemnity excommunicated on
three of the greater feasts every year.

SO. That ecclesiastical censure may not grow into con-
tempt, we charge, that all who knowingly communicate
with such as are publicly, and by name excommunicate
be laid under the same sentence, till they repent, saving
the tenor of the canon.

21. We add, that when the Eucharist is to be carried to
a sick man, the priest have a clean, decent box, and in it
a very clean, linen cloth, in which to carry the Lord's Body
to the sick man, with a little bell going before, to stir up
the devotion of the faithful by its sound ; and let the priest
go on this occasion with his stole, and in his surplice, if
the sick man be not too far distant. And let him have a
silver, or tin vessel, always to carry with him to the sick,
appropriated for this special purpose, that is for giving the
washings of his fingers to be drunk [by the sick man],
after the taking of the Eucharist.

2)1. Our will is, that this constitution be inviolably ob-

EDMUND. 551

served ; that if a rector of a church die, and leave [his
church without proper priestly vestments, or books, or
both, or] the church houses ruined, or decayed, such a
portion be taken from his ecclesiastical goods, as may be
sufficient to make good, and supply these defects of the
church. We ordain the same concerning those vicars,
who upon paying a moderate pension have the whole
profits of the church. For since they are bound to the
aforesaid reparations, such a portion ouglit to be reck-
oned amongst the debts. But let a reasonable regard
be had to the value of the church, in setting out this
portion.

'23. Let no rector of a church subject to us presume to
sell the tithes of his church not yet become due, before
the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin ; from which day
the fruits of custom ought to go for the paying of the
debts, and legacies of the rectors, though they die, before
the fruits become due.

24. As it has been forbidden in a council, so we forbid
any pension, great or small to be given to any one fraudu-
lently out of the porfits of a church. And because fraud
and simony used to be committed in relation to such pen-
sions, therefore we to obviate such evils do sometimes take
an oath both of the presenter and the presented, that no
unlawful promise or bargain hath been made.

25. We admonish rectors of churches, that they do not
endeavour to remove annual chaplains without reasonable
cause, especially if they are of honest life, and have a laud-
able testimony of their conversation.

26. If scandal arise by reason of the incontinence of a
parish priest, since the rector ought to be very watchful in
this point ; if therefore we come to the knowledge of it by
common fame, or enquiry, earlier than by the denunciation
of the rector, then he shall be punished, as conscious, at
the discretion of his superior. We pass the same sentence
as to perpetual vicars : and w^e decree both parsons, that
is, rectors and vicars, and also parish priests to be severely
punished, unless they be very vigilant in denouncing the

552 EDMUND.

excesses, of this sort especially, for which clerks are found
remarkable.

'27. Let the priests often caution the people, and forbid
under pain of anathema any married person to enter into
religion, or to be received, but by ourselves, or our license.

28. Let the priest warn women i;ot to make vows, but
with great deliberation, or the consent of their husbands,
and the advice of a priest who is capable of giving them
counsel.

29. We charge that laymen be often forbid to make
their wills without the presence of a parish priest, as they
desire, that their wills be fulfilled : we also forbid priests
to make their wills by a lay hand.

30. That is no marriage where there is not consent of
both parties, therefore they who give girls to boys in their
cradles do nothing, except both of them consent after they
come to years of discretion. We therefore by this decree
forbid any to be married for the future, before both are
come to the age appointed by laws and canons, unless in
case of urgent necessity for the good of peace.

3L Because too great diversity of religions brings con-
fusion into the Church of God, we charge that they who
will found a new [religious] house, or hospital, take from
us the rule and institution of it ; that they [who are to be
received into it] may live regularly and religiously ; and
we strictly forbid any men or women to be made close
recluses any where, without special license of the diocesan,
who is to judge of the places, the manners, the quality of
the persons, and the means, by which they are to be main-
tained. And let no secular persons by any means sojourn
in their houses, without a manifest and honest cause.

32. At the celebration of mass, let not the priest, when
he is going to give himself the host, first kiss it ; because
he ought not to touch it with his mouth before he receives
it. But if (as some do) he takes it off from the patten,
let him after mass cause both the chalice and patten to be
rinsed in water ; or else only the chalice, if he did not
take it from the patten. Let the priest have near to the

EDMUND. 653

altar a very clean cloth, cleanly and decently covered, and
every way enclosed to wipe his fingers, and lips after
receiving the Sacrament of the altar.

3JH. Let the priests admonish women that are big of
child in their parish, that when they apprehend the time
of their delivery to be at hand, they take care to have
water in readiness for baptizing the child, if necessity
require. And let them confess to the priest on account of
their imminent peril, lest being seized on a sudden a
priest be not to be had when they desire it. [And in
some places they also receive the Eucharist, which is a
laudable practice.]

34. It is provided by the sacred council, that if patrons,
advocates, feudataries or vidoms presume to kill or maim
a rector, vicar, or clerk of that Church [in which they are
interested] either by themselves, or by others ; that then
the patrons wholly loose their patronage, the advocates
their advowson, the feudataries their feofment, and the
vidoms the vidomship, [to the fourth generation.] And
let not the posterity of such be received into any college
of priests [to the fourth generation] nor have the honour
of a prelacy in any house of regulars. And we will have
this often denounced in churches.

35. As to tithes, we command them to be paid of all
things which are yearly renewed, to the Churches to which
they are due, especially those which are due by the law of
God, and the approved custom of the place ; and so that
the Churches be not defrauded of the tenth part on account
of the wages of servants, or harvesters. And we grant
that the detainers of tithes, if upon a third admonition
they do not reform their error, be struck with anathema
by the chaplains of the places till they make fit satisfaction.
And when they who detain, or steal tithes come to shrift,
let them not be admitted, unless they make satisfaction to
the priest, to whom the tithes are due by themselves, or
by the hands of their priest [to whom they confess.] And
let predial and other tithes be paid without difficulty, or

VOL. IV. 3 G *

554 EDMUND.

diminution in an entire manner, according to the insti-
tutes of the canons. And we grant that parish priests
have power of censuring the detainers of tithes in their
parishes, and of excommunicating them if they are con-
tumacious, and do not reform upon admonition. And let
no layman by any length of time claim to himself an
immunity against paying tithes ; since a layman accord-
ing to the institutes of the canons, cannot prescribe
[against] tithes.

36. Upon terror of anathema we forbid any constable
of a castle, or forest, or the baiUff of any potentate to
invade the possessions of clerks, religious, or any othfcr
persons, or to molest them with any unjust exactions or
oppressions. If any contrary to [our liberties and] this
prohibition, to the loss of his own salvation (which God
avert) do offend herein, and not amend upon admonition,
we charge, that their lands be forthwith laid under eccle-
siastical interdict by the archdeacon : if after that, they
being hardened return not to amendment, let them be
excommunicated with bells tolling and candles lighted
after a canonical admonition first given. And our will is,
and we strictly charge, that archdeacons and their minis-
ters give mutual assistance to each other, when they are
required to it by such as put this in execution.

37. We suspend those from the exercise of their orders,
who were not born in lawful matrimony, and were ordain-
ed without a sufficient dispensation, as also those who
were ordained by such as were not their proper bishops,
without the license of those that were their proper bishops
or prelates, till they have obtained such dispensation.
And we decree, that they who when they were ordained
were conscious to themselves of their being in mortal sin
formerly committed, or who took orders only for temporal
gain do not exercise their office, unless they are first
cleansed from this sort of sin by the sacrament of
penance.

His Grace soon fell into the King's displeasure, by

EDMUND, 655

opposing himself to the marriage of Elianor, the King's
sister, ^Yith Simon Mountfort Earl of Leicester, because,
upon the death of the Earl-Marshal, her first husband,
she had vowed chastity. To have this vow dispensed
with, the King procured the Pope to send a legate into
England : his name was Otho, a cardinal. Him also
this good Archbishop offended, and that so grievously, by
reprehending his monstrous covetousness, his bribery, and
extortion, as ever after he sought to work him all the mis-
chief he might The monks of Rochester had presented
unto this Archbishop one Pdchard de Wendover, demand-
ing of him consecration unto the bishopric of their church.
The Archbishop refused to aflford the same, knowing him
to be a very unlearned and insufficient man. Hereupon
the monks appealed to Rome, which the Archbishop un-
derstanding, hastened thither himself. Otho, the legate,
endeavoured to stay him at home, and failing thereof, did
his errand so well at Rome, as not only in that suit, but
another also which he had against Hugh, Earl of Arundel,
in another cause of appeal, he was overthrown, and con-
demned in a thousand marks charges to his great disgrace
and empoverishment. Being at Rome, he had complained
of many great abuses in England, and, among the rest, of
the long vacancy of bishoprics. The Pope seemed willing
to redress these things, and, concerning that matter, set
down this order, that if any cathedral church continued
void above five months, it should be lawful for the Arch-
bishop to confer it where he list, as well as any smaller
benefice. The procuring of this order cost him a great
sum of money : yet no sooner was his back turned, but
the Pope, at the King's request, revoked the same.
Being thus continually vexed, thwarted, and disgraced,
he departed into voluntary exile, and there, bewailint^
the misery of his country, spoiled and wasted by the
tyranny of the Pope, spent the rest of his life in continual
tears. Through extreme grief and sorrow, or (as some
think) too much fasting, he fell first into a consumption,
and after into a strange kind of ague. Whereupon he

556 EDWAEDS.

thought good to remove from the Abbey of Pontigny, in
France, (where he had lain ever since his coming out
of England) unto Soissy, and there departed this life,
November 16th, 1236, eight years after his first con-
secration.

The Pope afterwards called Archbishop Edmund a
saint ; and he appears to have been really a good man,
who wished to do his duty. The miseries in which our
beloved Church was involved by its connection with
Eome were in this reign very apparent ; see the Life of
Otho. — Godwin. Johnson. Wilkins.

■^ ■ EDWARDS, THOMAS.

Thomas Edwards was educated at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1605.
He was soon after ordained j; i'^^gyman of the Church of
England, but, as he said at'i^ ,^ ^Is of himself, though he
conformed, he was always a r S'^an in his heart. The
following is his own boast upon tm.J subject, which is here
given as shewing what were regarded as the marks of church-
manship in that age. " I never had, says he, a canonical
coat, never gave a penny towards the building of Paul's,
took not the canonical oath, declined subscription for many
years before the parliament, though I practised the old
conformity ; would not give ne obolum quidem to the
contributions against the Scots, but dissuaded other min-
isters ; much less did I yield to bow to the altar, and at
the name of Jesus, or administer the Lord's Supper at a
table turned altarwise, or bring the people up to rails, or
read the book of sports, or highly flatter the Archbishop
in an epistle dedicatory to him, or put articles into the
high-commission-court against any, but was myself pu
into the high-commission-court, for preaching a sennor '
jMercer's Chapel, on a fast-day in July, 1610, against ,
bishops and their faction ; such a free sermon, as I be'

EDWARDS. 557

never a sectary in England durst to have preached in such
a place and at such a time."

He ofiQciated at Hertford, and at several places in
and about London ; and was sometimes brought into
trouble for non-compliance with the doctrines and dis-
cipline of the Church. At length the declaration of the
parliament against Charles I. enabled him to renounce
episcopacy at once, and to profess himself openly a Pres-
byterian. His satisfaction, however, lasted but a short
time, for the Independents soon displayed towards the
Presbyterians the same opposition and hatred that those
two bodies had felt in common against the Church.
This raised the wrath, and called his pen into action.
He established a correspondence all over the kingdom,
and professed that he would resemble that tree spoken
of in the Pievelation, as yielding fruit every month,
by continually producing some tractate or other. He
delivered himself of sermons, prayers, praises, and dis-
courses, and at last poured upon the " Sectaries," as he
called them, the heavy artillery of his Gangraena. The first
part of this work was published at London in 1645, and
the author of it asserts in the title page that the errors
had been " vented and acted in England these four last
years," that is, from 1640-1, the very years in which the
Covenantei^s entered England, and dissent was trium-
phant. This is a remarkable fact. This writer, one of
their party, declares that they were guilty of all manner of
outrages ; some of their errors as stated by him are as
follows : " That the Scriptures cannot be said to be the
Word of God : there is no Word but Christ ; the Scriptures
are a dead letter, and no more to be credited than the
writings of men ; not divine but human inventions. That
the Scriptures are insufficient and uncertain, there is no
certainty to build any doctrine upon them, they are not an
infallible foundation of faith. That the holy writings and
oayings of Moses and the Prophets, of Christ and tlis
tipostles, and the proper names, persons, and things con-
3g 'Z

558 EDWARDS.

tained therein, are allegories, and these allegories are the
mystery and spiritual meaning of them. That the New-
Testament, nor no place of Scripture in it, binds any
further than the Spirit for present reveals to us that such
a place is the word of God. That God hath a hand in,
and is the author of the sinfulness of His people : that He
is the author not of those actions alone, in and with which
sin is, but of the very pravity, ataxy, anomy, irregularity
and sinfulness itself which is in them. That all lies come
forth from out of the mouth of God. That no man was
cast into hell for any sin, but only because God would
have it so. That the soul dies with the body, and all
things shall have an end, but God only shall remain for
ever. Every creature in the first estate of creation was
God, and every creature is God, every creature that hath
life and breath being an efflux from God, and shall retui-Q
into God again, be swallowed up in Him as a diop is in
the ocean. That by Christ's death, all the sins of all the
men in the world, Turks, Pagans, as well as Christians,
committed against the moral lav/ and first covenant, are
actually pardoned and forgiven, and this is the everlasting
gospel. That no man shall perish or go to hell ibr any
sin, but unbelief only. That the least truth is of more
worth than Jesus Christ Himself. That there is a perfect
w^ay in this life, not by Word, Sacraments, prayer, and
other ordinances, but by the experience of the Spirit in a
man's self. That a man baptized with the Holy Ghost
knows all things, even as God know^s all things; which
point is a deep mystery and great ocean, where there is
no casting anchor, nor sounding the bottom. That if a
man by the Spirit knew himself to be in the state of grace,
though he did commit murder or drunkenness, God did
see no sin in him. There is no freewill in man either to
good or evil, either in his natural or glorified estate. That
the moral law is of no use at all to believers, that it is no
rule for believers to walk by, nor to examine their lives by,
and that Christians are freed from the mandatory power

EDWARDS. 559

of the law. Neither faith, nor repentance, nor humiliation,
nor self-denial, nor use of ordinances, nor doing as one
would be done to, are duties required of Christiaus, or
such things as they must exercise themselves in, or they
can have no part in Christ. That the doctrine of repent-
ance is a soul-destroying doctrine. That it is as possible
for Christ Himself to sin, as for a child of God to sin.
That God doth not chastise any of his children for sin ;
and let believers sin as fast as they can, there is a fountain
open for them to wash in. That God's children are not
to ask the pardon and forgiveness of their sins, they need
not, they ought not, and it is no less than blasphemy for
a child of God to ask pardon of sins, it is infidelity to ask
pardon of sins, and David's asking forgiveness of sin was
his weakness. That the soul of a man is mortal as the
soul of a beast, and dies with the body. There is no
resurrection at all of the bodies of men after this life, nor
heaven nor hell, nor devils after this life. That in points
of religion, even in the articles of faith, and principles of
religion, there is nothing certainly to be believed and
built on, only that all men ought to have liberty of con-
science, and libeity of prophesying. It is as lawful to
break any of the ten commandments, as to baptize an
infant : yea, it is as lawful to commit adultery and murder,
as to baptize a child. That the Church of England and
the ministry thereof is antichristian, yea of the devil, and
that it is absolutely sinful and unlawful to bear any of
their ministers preach in their assemblies. That all set-
tled certain maintenance for ministers of the Gospel,
especially that which is called tithes, is unlawful, Jewij^li,
and antichristian. That it is unlawful to worship God in
places consecrated, and in places where superstition and
idolatry have been practised, as in our churches. That
there is no need of human learniug, nor for reading
authors, for preachers, but all books and learning must go '
down ; it comes from the want of the Spirit, that men
write such great volumes, and make such ado of learning.
It is unlawful for the saints to join in prayer where wicked

560 EDWARDS.

men are, or to pray with any of the wicked. That there
are revelations and visions in these times; yea to some
they are more ordinary, and shall be to the people of God
generally within a while. That the gift of miracles is not
ceased in these times, but that some of the sectaries have
wrought miracles. It is ordinary for Christians now in
these days, with Paul to be wrapt up to the third heavens,
and to hear words unutterable, and they cannot well have
assurance of being Christians, that have not found and
had experience of this. All the earth is the saints', and
there ought to be a community of goods, and the saints
should share in the lands and estates of gentlemen and
rich men. That it is lawful for a man to put away his
wife upon indisposition, unfitness, contrariety of mind, &o.
It is unlawful for Christians to fight, and take up arms
for their laws and civil liberties. That using of set forms
of prayer prescribed is idolatry. That it is not lawful for
a Christian to be a magistrate, but upon turning Christian
he should lay down his magistracy. That God hath a
bodily shape and proportion. The souls of the saints
departed now in heaven, are on earth every where present
with their friends, and with all the affairs of this world,
seeing and knowing them ; and do now with Christ govern
and rule the kingdoms of the earth, and all the affairs
here below. That there is no need of universities, that
universities are of the devil ; that human learning is flesh
opposed to the Spirit, and that if men be anointed with
the Spirit, and accepted among the saints, they are suffi-
ciently qualified. That all shall be saved at last, both all
men and devils : and shall see, feel, and possess blessed-
ness to their everlasting salvation and comfort. That
Christ shed His blood for kine and horses and all other
creatures, as well as for men," &c.

These, and many more, says the writer in the liiog-

•raphia Britaunica, are some of the blasphemies and horrid

impieties advanced and maintained in these unliappy

kingdoms, in those lawless and distracted times, when

every one did wliat seemed riglit in his own eyes.

EDWARDS. 50 1

The Dissenters in power were not prepared to show
toleration, even to one who shared with them their hatred
of the Church, and Edwards was driven by them out of
England in 1647, soon after the publication of the third
part of the Gangrsena. He retired to Holland, and
died the same year. He published, 1. " Eeasons against
the Independent government of particular congrega-
tions," &c. London, 1641, 4to. This was answered the
same year by a woman named Catherine Chidley.

2. " Antapologia : or, a full answer to the apologetical
narration of Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Nye, Mr. Sympson,
Mr. Burroughs, Mr. Bridge, members of the assembly of
divines : wherein are handled many of the controversies
of these times," 1644, 4to. The chief design of this work
we learn from himself, in the preface to it: "This An-
tapologia, says he, I here recommend to you for a true
glass to behold the faces of Presbytery and Independency
in, with the beauty, order, and strength of the one ; and
the deformity, disorder, and weakness of the other."

3. " Gangraena ; (already alluded to) or, a catalogue and
discovery of many of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and
pernicious practices of the sectaries of this time, vented
and acted in England in these four last years," &c. 1645,
4to. 4. Gangraena: part the second, 1616, 4to. 5. Gan-
gr^na : part the third. The errors, heresies, and blas-
phemies, he particularly takes notice of, in these three
parts of his Gangraena, are by him referred to sixteen
heads or sorts of sectaries ; viz. Independents, Brownists,
Chiliasts or Millenaries, Antinomians, Anabaptists, Mani-
festarians or Arminians, Libertines, Familists, Enthusi-
asts, Seekers and Waiters, Perfectists, Socinians, Arians,
Antitrinitarians, Antiscripturists, Sceptics and Question-
ists, who question every thing in matters of religion ;
namely, all the articles of faith, and first principles of
the Christian religion, holding nothing positively or
certainly, saving the doctrine of pretended liberty of con-
science for all, or liberty of prophesying. 6. " The cast-
ing down of the last and strongest hold of Satan ; or, a

56-2 EGBERT.

treatise against toleration," Part. I. London, 1647. This
was written when the Independents, by means of a tolera-
tion, were for working themselves into all places of trust.
7. "Of the particular visibility of the Church." 8. "A
treatise of the civil power in ecclesiasticals, and of suspen-
sion from the Lord s Supper." — Wood. Gangrcena.

EDWAKDS, JONATHAN.

Jonathan Edwards was born at Windsor, in Connecti-
cut, in 1703, and educated at Yale College, where he took
his degrees in arts. In 1722 he became preacher to a
Presbyterian congregation at New York ; but in 1724 he
was chosen tutor of Yale College. In 1726 he resigned
that station, and became assistant to his maternal grand-
father, a minister at Northampton, in Connecticut. Here
he continued till 1750, when he was dismissed for refus-
ing to administer the sacrament to immoral persons. He
now went on a mission to the Indians, and in 1757 was
chosen president of the College of New Jersey, where he
died in 1758, of the small pox. He wrote — 1. A Treatise
concerning religious affections, 8vo. 2. The Life of
David Brainerd, 8vo. 3. An inquiry into the qualifica-
tions for communion, 8vo. 4. An Inquiry into the
Modern Notion of that Freedom of will, which is supposed
to be essential to moral ageucy, 8vo. 5. The Doctrine of
original sin defended. 6. A history of Redemption, 8vo
After his death appeared his sermons, with his life pre-
fixed.— V/atkins.

EGBERT, OR EGBERT.

Egbert was the brother of Eadbert, King of Northum-
berland, and became iVrchbishop of York in 731. He
procured the archiepiscopal pall to be restored to his
cathedral, and revived the metropolitan jurisdiction. This

EGGLESFIELD. 563

see had never been dignified by the pall since the time of
Paulinus, if the pall may be regarded as conferring dig-
nity. The prelates succeeding Paulinus had been con-
tented with diocesan authority. The three bishops north
of the Humber were suffragans to Egbert, who is still
more distinguished for the library he founded. This has
been mentioned honourably by Alcuin, who was for some
time keeper of it. William of Malmesbury called it
" omnium liberalium artium armarium nobilissimam
bibliothecam." It was burnt, with a great part of York,
in the reign of Stephen. He died in 767. He wrote,
1 . Dialogus de Ecclesiastica Institutione. This was printed
by Warton, in 1693, and has appeared in different editions
of the Councils. 2. Constitutiones Ecclesiasticse. Several
copies of this exist in manuscript, but portions only have
been hitherto published. — Collier. Godivin. Wright.

EGERTON, JOHN.

John Egerton was the son of Henry, Bishop of Hereford,
and born in London, in 1721. He received his educa-
tion at Eton, and next at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1745
he obtained the rectory of Ross, and the year following a
prebend in the cathedral of Hereford. He was appointed
chaplain to the King in 1749, and the next year Dean of
Hereford. In 1756 he was consecrated Bishop of Bangor;
removed to Lichfield in 1768, and finally to Durham in
1771. He was a munificent prelate, and died in London
in 1787. The Bishop published only three sermons. —
Hutchinson 's D urham .

EGGLESFIELD, ROBERT.

Robert Egglesfield, the founder of Queen's College,
Oxford, was a native of Cumberland, where his family

564 ELIOT. *

held large estates ; part of which now belong to the col-
lege. He was probably born at Egglesfield, and in 1332
became rector of Burgh in Westmoreland ; but he lived
at court, where he was chaplain to Philippa, Queen of
Edward III. He died in 1349. — Hutchinson s Cumber-
land.

ELIOT, JOHN.

John Eliot was born in 1604, and educated in the
University of Cambridge. He embarked in 1631 for
America, became pastor of an Independent church at
Boston, but aiterwards went to Roxburg in New England,
where the rest of his life was spent. In 1646, having
learnt the language of the Indians, he commenced his
scheme of converting them to Christianity. He translated
the Bible into the language of the Six Nations. This was
printed first at Cambridge in New England in 1664, and
afterwards, shortly before his death, with corrections, by
Mr. Cotton, his fellow-labourer in the Indian mission.
This was the first translation of the Scriptures that had
ever been attempted in the Indian language. He pub-
lished an Indian Grammar, 1666, and the Logic Primer
for the use of the Indians, 1672. He used to write
periodically accounts of the progress of the gospel among
the Indians in New England, which were regularly sent
to London. He was not forgetful, in his benevolent exer-
tions, of the whites ; for he was the means of establishing
a free-grammar school at Roxburg, which was eminently
beneficial to the interests of learning in the New England
States. The unexpected success of Eliot drew the atten-
tion of the parliament and people of England to the
necessities of the colonies, and hence arose the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He died
in the latter end of 1689, at the age of eighty-six. — Cotton.
Mather.

ELLIS. 585

ELLIS, CLEMENT.

Clement Ellis, born in Cumberland, in 1630, was the
son of the steward of the Bishop of Carlisle. He was a
servitor at Queen's College, in 1649, and afterwards became
a fellow. He or his father had probably suffered for the
Royal cause, for Clement received, while at college, several
donations towards his subsistence, which he afterwards
discovered to have come from Dr. Jeremy Taylor and
Dr. Hammond, being part of the collections of money put
into their hands for the support and maintenance of such
as had suffered under the persecution of the Puritans.
He was ordained by Dr. Skinner, the then deprived
Bishop of Oxford, at his house in Langton, near Oxford,
on the 10th of December, 1656. This bishop was almost
the only one that conferred holy orders during the trou-
bles, and was thought at his death to have sent more
labourers into the vineyard, than all the bishops of his
time. Mr. Ellis being thus in orders, became a constant
preacher, either at St. Peter's in. the East, or at Abingdon,
until the year 1660, when the Lord William, then Marquis,
afterwards Duke of Newcastle, took him to be his domestic
chaplain, upon the recommendation of Dr. Morley and
Dr. Barlow.

By his noble patron he was presented to the rectory of
Kirkby in the county of Nottingham. He became a
prebendary of Southwell in 1693 He died in 1700. His
death, which he was better prepared for by a lingering
illness, was attended with all the tokens of an humble
and devout soul, and a spirit entirely resigned to the will
of God. The prayers of the Church, which he valued
above others, were to his last minutes made use of. He
received the Holy Sacrament several times, and had
always in the time of his health a monthly Sacrament in
his church ; and during the whole course of his sickness,
as w^ell as at his departure, such a power and presence of
God's good Spirit seemed to be afforded him, that it was
vol. IV. 3 H

500 ELLYS.

the greatest ease and pleasure for him to die ; and all
doubtfulness and uncertainty, concerning his everlasting
state, was with true reason, and upon good grounds, re-
moved from him. He published — 1. The Genteel Sinner;
or England's Brave Gentleman Characterized in a Letter
to a Friend, 1660. In which he says, " The true gentle-
man is one that is God's servant, the world's master, and
his own man. His virtue is his business, his study his
recreation, contentedness his rest, and happiness his
reward. God is his Father, the Church is his mother,
the saints his brethren, all that need him his friends, and-
heaven his inheritance. Religion is his mistress, loyalty
and justice her ladies of honour ; devotion is hi& chaplain,
chastity his chamberlain, sobriety his butler, temperance-
his cook, hospitality his housekeeper, providence his
steward, charity his treasurer, piety his mistress of the
house, and discretion, to let in, and let out, as is most fit.
Thus is his whole family made up of virtues, and he the
true master of the family. He is necessitated to take the
world in his way to heaven, but he walks through it as
fast as he can ; and all his business, by the way, is to
make himself and others happy. Take him all in two
words, he is a man, and a Christian." 2. A Catechism,
This was reprinted in 1738 by the Rev. John Veneer^
and to this edition a life was added. 8. The Vanity of
Scoffing, in a Letter to a witty Gentleman. 4. Christianity
in Short, or the Short Way to be a good Christian. —
Veiieer.-

ELLYS, ANTHONY.

Anthony Ellys was born in 1 693. He was educated
at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he took his masters
degree in 1716. In 1724 he was presented to the
vicarage of St. Olave, Jewry, and the rectory of St. Martin,
Ironmonger Lane. In 1725 he obtained a prebend of
Gloucester, aiid in 1728 was created D.D. at Cambridge.

ELPHINSTON. 567

He was next promoted to the bishopric of St. David's,
and died at Gloucester in 1761. The bishop pubhshed
in his life time — 1. A Plea for the Sacramental Text.
2. Ptemarks on Hume's Essay concerning Miracles, 4to.,
and sermons preached on public occasions. 3. Tracts on
the Liberty, Spiritual and Temporal, of Protestants in
England, 1763. 4. Tracts on the Liberty, Spiritual and
Temporal, of Subjects in England. The two last-men-
tioned are collections of tracts, and form one great and
elaborate work, which had been the principal object of the
bishop's life. The first vindicates the establishment of
the Church of England against the objections of the dis-
senters and the Roman Catholics ; the second relates to
the British constitution. They were not published until
after his death. — Biog. Brit.

ELPHINSTOX, WILLIAM:.

William Elphinston was born at Glasgow, in 1431.
He received his education at the university of his native
place, and on entering into orders, obtained the rectory of
Kirkmichael. After this he went to Paris and Orleans,
at both which places he was chosen professor of civil and
canon law. At the end of nine years be returned to Scot-
land, and became rector of the university of Glasgow.
He also sat in parliament, and had a place in the privy
council. James III. sent him on an embassy to France,
and when he came home he was made Bishop of Pioss,
from whence, in 1484, he was translated to Aberdeen. In
1488 he was advanced to the post of lord chancellor ; S(X)n
after which he went on an embassy to Vienna. In 1492
he was made lord privy-seal, and the same year appointed
one of the eomraissiouers on the part of Scotland, for the
prolongation of the truce with England. The distractions
of the state being appeased, he found leisure to attend to
an object that he had long meditated, and which engrossed
much of his thoughts. Religion and learning had been

568 ELSNER.

the chief pursuits of his life, and he wished to diffuse the
influence of both over the north of Scotland. For this pur-
pose he applied to the king to solicit the papal authority
for the foundation of the university of Aberdeen, which
was granted by a bull from Pope Alexander VI., dated
February 10, 1494. The college, called King's College,
in Old Aberdeen, was, accordingly, erected in 1506.
Besides the erection and endowment of the college. Bishop
Elphinston left ample funds to build and to support a
bridge over the river Dee, and the sum he bequeathed for
these two objects was 10,000 pounds Scots. He wrote a
book of canons, some lives of Scottish saints, and the his-
tory of Scotland, from the rise of the nation to his own
time, which is now preserved among Fairfax's MSS. in
the Bodleian library. The death of James IV., who lost
his life at Flodden-field, where the better part of the Scotch
nobility shared a similar fate, so afflicted the mind of
Elphinston, that he died soon after, broken-hearted, at
Edinburgh, on the •25th of October, 1514, while negotia-
tions were pending with the court of Rome for his eleva-
tion to the primacy of St. Andrew's. — Keith's Scottish
Bishops. Thorn's Hist, of Aberdeen.

ELSNER, JAMES.

James Elsner was born in 1692, at Saalfield, in Prussia,
and educated at Konisberg. In 1720 he was appointed
professor of theology and the Oriental languages at Lingen,
having previously taken his doctor's degree at Utrecht.
He was afterwards director of the belles lettres in the
academy of Berlin, where he died in 1750. His theologi-
cal works are very numerous. Those of most importance
are — 1. Observationes Sacrae in Novi Foederis historicos
Libros : tomus i. Libros historicos complexus : tomus ii.
Epistolas Apostolorum et xVpocalypsin complexus. This
work gave rise to a controversy with Stoer. 2, The

EPHRAIM. 509

Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians explained. He also
wrote, A new Description of the State of the Greek Church
in Turkey, and other works on theolog}^ and antiquities.
—Diet. Hist.

EPHEAIM, OB EPHREM.

Of this distinguished deacon we cannot do better than
present the reader with the account which is given us by
the ancient historian Sozomen. Ephraim the Syrian, he
says, was entitled to the highest honours, and was the
greatest ornament of the Church. He was a native of
Nisibis, or of the neighbouring territory. He devoted his
life to monastic philosophy ; and although he received no
instruction, he became, contrary to all expectation, so pro-
ficient in the learning and language of the Syrians, that
he comprehended with ease the most abstruse theorems
of philosophy. His style of writing was so replete with
splendid oratory and sublimity of thought that he sur-
passed all the writers of Greece. If the works of these
writers were to be translated into Syriac, or any other lan-
guage, and divested, as it were, of the beauties of the Greek
language, they would retain little of their original elegance
and value. The productions of Ephraim have not this dis-
advantage: they were translated into Greek during his life,
and yet they preserve much of their original force and power,
so that his works are not less admired when read in Greek
than when read in Syriac. Basil, who was subsequently
bishop of the metropolis of Cappadocia, was a great admirer
of Ei^hraim, and was astonished at his erudition. The
opinion of Basil, who was the most learned and eloquent
man of his age, is a stronger testimony, I think, to the
merit of Ephraim, than any thing that could be indited
in his praise. It is said that he wrote three hundred
thousand verses, and that he had many disciples who were
zealously attached to his doctrines. The most celebrated
3h'2

570 EPHRAIM.

of his disciples were i\.bbas, Zenobius, Abraham, Maras,
and Simeon, whom the most learned men of Syria regard
as the glory of their country. Paulanus and Aranad are
likewise generally included in their number; for they were
renowned as men of great eloquence, although reported to
have deviated froQi sound doctrine.

I am not ignorant that there were some very learned
men who flourished in Osroene, as, for instance, Barda-
sanes, who originated a heresy designated by his name,
and Harmonius his son. It is related that this latter was
deeply versed in Grecian erudition, and was the first to
compose verses in his vernacular language ; those ^erses
he delivered to the choirs, and even now the Syrians fre-
quently sing, not the precise verses written by Harmonius,
but others of the same metre. For as Harmonius was not
altogether free from the errors of his father, and enter-
tained various opinions concerning the soul, the generation
and destruction of the body, and the doctrine of trans-
migration, which are taught by the Greel? philosophers,
he introduced some of these sentiments in the lyrical songs
which he composed. When Ephraim perceived that the
Syrians were charmed with the elegant diction and melo-
dious versification of Harmonius, he became appreliensive,
lest they should imbibe the same opinions; and therefore,
although he was ignorant of Grecian learning, he applied
himself to the study of the metres of Harmonius, and
composed similar poems in accordance with the doctrines
of the Church, and sacred hymns in praise of holy men.
From that period the Syrians sang the odes of Ephraim,
according to the method indicated by Harmonius. The
execution of this work is alone sufficient to attest the
natural endowments of Ephraim. He was as celebrated
for the good actions he performed as for the rigid course
of discipline he pursued. He was particularly fond of
tranquilhty. He was so serious, and so careful to avoid
giving occasion to calumny, that he refrained from looking
uDon woman. It is related that a female of licentious

EPHRAIM. 571

character, who was either desirous of tempting him, or
who had been bribed for the purpose, contrived on one
occasion to meet him face to face, and fixed her eyes
intently on him ; he rebuked her, and commanded her to
look down upon the ground. " Wherefore should I obey
your injunction," rephed the woman ; " for I was born not
of the earth but of you ? It would be more just if you
were to look down upon the earth whence you sprang,
while I look upon you as I was born of you." Ephraim,
astonished at the language of the woman, recorded the
whole transaction in a book which most Syrians regard as
one of the best of his productions. It is also said of him,
that, although he was naturally prone to passion, he never
exhibited angry feeling towards any one from the period
of his embracing a monastic life. It once happened that
after he had, according to custom, been fasting several
days, his attendant, in presenting some food to him, let
fall the dish on which it w'as placed. Ephraim, perceiv-
ing that he w^as overwhelmed with shame and terror, said
to him, " Take courage ; we wall go to the food as the food
does not come to us," and he immediately seated himself
beside the fragments of the dish, and ate his supper.
What I am about to relate will suffice to show that he
was totally exempt from the love of vain-glory. He was
appointed bishop of some town, and attempts were made
to convey him away for the purpose of ordaining him. As
soon as he became aware of w4iat was intended, he ran to
the market-place, exhibited himself in an indecorous
manner, and ate in public. Those who had come to
carry him away to be their bishop, on seeing him in this
state, believed that he was out of his mind, and departed:
and he, meeting with an opportunity for effecting his
escape, remained in concealment until another had been
ordained in his place. What I have now said concerning
Ephraim must suffice, although his own countrymen relate
many other anecdotes of him. Yet his conduct on one
occasion shortly before his death, appears to me so worthy
of remembrance that I shall record it here. The citv of

572 EPHRAIM.

Edessa being severely visited by famine, he quitted the
solitary cell in which he dwelt, and rebuked the rich for
permitting the poor to die around them, instead of im-
parting to them of their superfluities ; and he represented
to them that the wealth which they were treasuring up so
carefully would turn to their own condemnation, and to
the ruin of the soul, which is of more value than all the
riches of the earth. The rich men, convinced by his
arguments, replied, " We are not intent upon hoarding
our wealth, but we know of no one to whom we can con-
fide the distribution of our goods, for all are prone to seek
after lucre, and to betray the trust placed in them."
"What think you of me?" asked Ephraim. On their
admitting that they considered him an excellent and just
man, and worthy of confidence, he offered to undertake
the distribution of their alms. As soon as he received
their money he had about three hundred beds fitted up
in the public galleries, and here he tended those who
were ill and suffering from the effects of the famine, whe-
ther they were foreigners or natives of the surrounding
country. On the cessation of the famine he returned to
the cell in which he had previously dwelt ; and, after the
lapse of a few days, he expired. He attained no higher
clerical degree than that of deacon, although his attain-
ments in virtue rendered him equal in reputation to those
who rose to the highest sacerdotal dignity, while his holy
life and erudition made him an object of universal admi-
ration. I have now given some account of the virtue of
Ephraim. It would require a more experienced hand
than mine, to furnish a full description of his character
and that of the other illustrious men w^ho about the same
period had devoted themselves to a life of philosophy ; and
it is to be regretted that Ephraim did not enter upon this
undertaking. The attempt is beyond my powers, for I
possess but little knowledge of these great men, or of their
exploits.

Ephraim, it will be observed from the above statement,
is to be regarded as a benefactor of mankind, as having

EPIPHANIUS. 573

been the first to suggest the idea of an Infirmary or
Hospital supported by general subscriptions. His death
occurred in 378.

His works were very little known until they were
brought into public notice by Vossius, and then they ap-
peared under such suspicious circumstances, as to occa-
sion considerable doubts in many minds as to their gene-
ral authenticity ; but these doubts have, for the most part,
been removed by the edition of his works published at
Eome in 1736, and the following years by Joseph Asseman.
The Oxford Translator of the Prythous " feels himself
under an obligation," as he tells us, " to speak with suspi-
cion of the Greek works attributed to St. Ephraim ;" and
then, in what seems to be an affected humility, gives
reasons why his suspicions ought not to be attended to.
The following is the list of editions :

Ephraemi Syri Opera, cura Ger. Vossii, Gr. et Lat.
3 vol. Rom. 1589—1597.

Colon. 1603.

Antverp. 1619.

Gr. cura Ed. Thwaites, fol. Oxon. 1709.

Opera omnia, Syr. et Lat., et Gr. et Lat.,

6 tom. fol. Opera et Studio Jos. Asseraanni, Rom. 1737 —
46. This is the only complete edition of Ephraim's
Works. — Sozomen. Cave.

EPIPHANIUS.

Saint Epiphanius was born about the year 320, at
Besanduce, a village of Palestine. His early years were
passed under monastic discipline ; nevertheless he informs
us he was nearly seduced to the Gnostic heresy; but God
of His mercy preserved him, and by his intercourse with
Helarion and the monks of Palestine, be was confirmed
in the true faith. About 367 he w^as chosen Bishop of
Salamis, afterwards called Constantia, the metropolis of
the island of Cyprus. Epiphanius took up a violent

574 EPIPHANIUS.

animosity against the writings of Origen ; he seems to
have been almost insane upon the subject. In the pulpit
at Jerusalem he declaimed so strongly against certain
opinions of Origen that John, Bishop of Jerusalem, sup-
posed that an insinuation was intended against himself ;
and Epiphanius who, though evidently a pious, was clearly
a weak man, and peculiarly open to the flattery which is
shewn by deference, continued to place himself in the
wrong by the ordination of Paulinianus. Paulinianus, the
brother of St. Jerome, lived with him in the monastery of
Bethlehem. There were two priests in this community,
both of whom, through a mistaken humility, and through
a forgetfulness of Him on Whose help and in Whose
name they were to act, refused to officiate at the sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper : these were St. Jerome and
Vincentius. Paulinianus was judged worthy of the priest-
hood, but feeling himself unworthy, and fearing compul-
sory ordination, he carefully avoided meeting any bishops.
Their friend, St. Epiphanius, had founded a monastery
at his birth-place, in the diocese of Eleutheropolis, in
Palestine. While he was there, Paulinianus went with
several monks to see him, that they might give him satis-
faction for some cause of displeasure he had against them.
St. Epiphanius believed that Providence had sent him ;
and as divine service was being performed in the church
of a village near his monastery, he caused Paulinianus
(who was wholly unconscious of his intention) to be seized
by several deacons, and ordered them to stop his mouth,
lest to deliver himself he should conjure them in the
name of Christ. In this way he ordained him deacon,
notwithstanding his great unwillinguess, and the protes-
tations which he made of his unworthiness ; he obliged
him to perlorm the duties of his office, endeavouring to
persuade him by passages from Scripture, and through
fear of the judgments of God. Afterwards, as he was
officiating at the Holy Sacrament, St. Epiphanius ordain-
ed him priest with the same difficulty, causing his mouth
to be stopped ; and he then made use of the same argu-

EPIPHANIUS. 575

Tiients to oblige him to take his peat among the priests.
After this he wrote to the priests and other monks of this
community, reproving them for not having written to ask
for the ordination of Paulinianus ; especially since it was
now more than a year since several had complained to
him of having no one among them to celebrate the Holy
Mysteries ; and that all desired the ordination of Pauli-
nianus, for the advantage of the monastery. Paulinianus
followed St. Epiphanius into Cyprus, and continued sub-
ject to him as being one of his clergy ; only going some-
times to visit his brother in Palestine.

John of Jerusalem was justly angry at this ordination.
He complained loudly of it, and threatened to write
concerning it to the whole world. He alleged that St.
Epiphanius had no jurisdiction over Paulinianus, nor in
Palestine, which he claimed as his province. He said
moreover that Paulinianus was too young to be a priest^
though he was thirty years of age. He added certain per--
sonal reproaches against St. Epiphanius, and amongst
others, that in the prayers of the Holy Sacrifice he said :
" Lord ! grant unto Jahn to believe aright ;" thus accusing
him of heresy. It is true that St. Epiphanius accused
John of holding the errors attributed to Origen, and this
was the chief cause of their division. John pretended
that they had reproached him with this only since he had
complained of the ordination of Paulinianus. But St.
Epiphanius and St. Jerome maintained on the contrary,
that John complained of this ordination only through
revenge, because they had found fault with his doctrine.
Epiphanius having been informed of the complaints and
menaces of John of Jerusalem, wrote a letter to him,
in which he gave an account of the manner in which he
bad performed the ordination, and said :

"You ought to rejoice, knowing that the fear of God
obliged me to do it ; especially considering that there is
no difference in the priesthood of God, when regard is had
to the good of the Church. For though the bishops have
every one his church, of which he takes care,, and though.

576 EPIPHANIUS.

none may encroach upon what belongs to another, yet the
love of Christ, which is without dissimulation, is to be
preferred to every thing." And afterwards : "0 how
truly commendable is the meekness and goodness of the
bishops of Cyprus ; and how worthy of the mercy of God
is our rusticity as you would term it! For many bishops
of our communion have ordained as priests in our pro-
vince, some whom we were unable to secure, and have
sent us deacons and subdeacons, whom we gladly received.
I, myself, exhorted Bishop Philo of blessed memory and
holy Theoprobus, to ordain priests in certain churches of
Cyj)rus, which were near them, because my diocese, in
which they are situated, extends so far. Why therefore
are you so angry on account of a work of God, which was
done not for the destruction but for the edification of the
brethren ? " He afterwards answers the personal re-
proaches ; and protests that he never spoke of John in the
public prayers, any otherwise than of the rest of the
bishops, saying ; " Lord ! preserve him that preacheth the
Truth;" or else, " Grant, Lord, that he may preach the
Word of Truth ;" using one or other of these expressions
according to the occasion or the sequence of the dis-
course.

He afterwards comes to Origen's errors, which he
affirms to be the true cause of John's animosity, and he
refers them to eight heads. The first is, that the Son of
God cannot see the Father, nor the Holy Ghost, the Son ;
the second, that souls have been angels in heaven, and
that for their sins they were sent here below and impri-
soned in bodies ; the third, that the devil will return to
his former dignity and reign in heaven with the saints ;
the fourth, that the garments of skins, with which God
clothed Adam and Eve, were their bodies, and that they
were incorporeal before they sinned ; the fifth, that we
shall not rise again with the same flesh ; the sixth, that
the terrestial paradise is only an allegory of heaven ; the
seventh, that the waters which in Scripture are placed
above the firmament, are the angels, and those beneath,

EPIPHANIUS. 577

the evil spirits ; the eighth, that man by sin lost his
resemblance to God. St. Epiphanius exhorts John of
Jerusalem to renounce all these errors, of which he like-
wise accuses the priest Ruffinus of Aquileia and Palladius
of Galatia.

At the end of his letter are these words : " Moreover,
I have been informed, that some have murmured against
me, because when we were going to the holy place named
Bethel, in order to perform the collect there with you ; on
coming to the village Anablatha, and seeing there, as I
passed, a lamp hghted, I asked what place it was, and on
being told that it was a church, I went in to pray accord-
ingly. I found a curtain fastened to the door of this
church, upon which was painted a picture to represent
Christ or some saint ; for I do not perfectly remember the
subject. Having therefore seen the image of a man ex-
posed to view in the church of Christ against the authority
of Scripture, I tore the curtain and advised those who kept
that place rather to wrap the dead body of some poor man
in it, for his burial. They murmured and said ; * If he
must tear our curtain, he ought at least to give us another
in exchange.' When I heard this I promised to do it, and
accordingly I now send the best I could meet with, and
I beg you to order the priests of the place to receive it ;
and to forbid for the future the exhibition in the church
of such curtains as are contrary to our religion ; it becomes
you to remove this scandal."

We may be thankful that in the blessed Church of
England better discipline is observed ; and that, if we have
faults of our own, we are free from some which existed
even in the primitive ages.

Soon after this controversy in Palestine, an ambitious
and violent prelate, Theophilus, came forward as the bitter
opponent of Origen, and made a party with Epiphanius.
Irritated for several reasons against the monks of Nitria,
whom he represented as infected with the contagion of
Origenism, he ordered them to give up and abandon all

/ VOL. IV. 3 1

578 EPIPIIANIUS.

the productions of Origen. The monks refusing to obey,
Theophilus called a council at Alexandria in 399, in which,
having condemned the followers of Origen, he sent a band
of soldiers to drive the monks from their residence in
Mount Nitria. The persecuted monks, after going first to
Jerusalem, and then to Scythopolis, betook themselves at
last to Constantinople. Here St. Chrysostom was now
bishop, beloved by all the virtuous of the clergy, though
hated by a corrupt and luxurious court. St. John Chry-
sostom drew upon himself the bitter hatred of Theophilus
by espousing the cause of the banished monks, and wri-
ting to him in their behalf. The rest shall be stated in
the words of the ancient histoiian Sozomen, compared with
those of Socrates. These historians speak of the cele-
brated Patriarch of Constantinople, whom we now chiefly
know by his title, if we may so call it, of Chrysostom,
by his name, John. " Theophilus," says Sozomen, " kept
his designs against John as secret as possible ; and wrote
to the bishops of every city, condemning the books of
Origen. It also occurred to him that it would be advan-
tageous to enlist Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus,
on his side, because the eminent virtues of this prelate
had secured him universal admiration ; and he therefore
formed a friendship with him, although he had formerly
blamed him for asserting that God possessed a human form.
As if repentant of having ever entertained any other sen-
timent, Theophilus wrote to Epiphanius (whom Socrates
describes as a person more eminent for his extraordinary
piety than for his intelligence) to acquaint him, that he
now held the same opinions as himself, and to condemn
the works of Origen, whence he had drawn his former
hypothesis. Epiphanius had long regarded the writings
of Origen with peculiar aversion, and was therefore easily
led to attach credit to the epistle of Theophilus. He soon
after assembled the bishops of Cyprus together, and pro-
hibited the perusal of the books of Origen. He also wrote
to the other bishops, and among others, to the Bishop of

EPIPHANIUS. 579

Constantinople, exhorting them to issue similar prohibi-
tions. Theophilus, perceiving that there could be no dan-
ger in following the example of Epiphanius, whose exalted
virtues were universally appreciated and reverenced, as-
sembled the bishops of his province, and enacted a similar
decree. John, on the other hand, paid little attention to
the letters of Epiphanius and Theophilus. Those among
the powerful and the clergy who were opposed to him,
l^erceived that the designs of Theophilus tended to his
ejection from the bishopric, and therefore endeavoured to
procure the convention of a council in Constantinople, in
order to carry this measure into execution. TheDphilus
exerted himself to the utmost in convening this council ;
he commanded the bishops of Egypt to repair by sea to
Constantinople ; he wrote to request Epiphanius and the
other eastern bishops to proceed to that city with as little
delay as possible, and he himself set off on the journey
thither by land. Epiphanius was the first to sail from
Cyprus ; he landed at Hebdoma, a suburb of Constanti-
nople, and after having prayed in the church erected at
that place, (where, according to Socrates, he again violated
the canons, by ordaining a deacon in another man's diocese)
he proceeded to enter the city. In order to do him honour,
John went out with all his clergy to meet him. Epi-
phanius, however, evinced clearly by his conduct that he
believed the disadvantageous report that had been spread
against John, for he would not remain in his house, and
avoided all intercourse with him. He also privately as-
sembled all the bishops w^ho were in Constantinople, and
showed them the decrees that he had issued against the
works of Origen. Some of the bishops approved of these
decrees, while others objected to them. Theotimus, Bishop
of Scythia, strongly opposed the proceedings of Epiphanius,
and told him that it w^as not right to cast insult on the
memory of one who had long been numbered with the
dead, nor to call into question the conclusion to which the_
ancients had arrived on the subject. While discoursing
in this strain, he drew forth a work of Origfen's which he

580 EPIPHANIUS.

had brought with him ; and after reading aloud a passage
conducive to the edification of the Church, he remarked
that those who condemned such sentiments were guilty of
manifest absurdity, and that while they were ridiculing
the words of the author, they were evidently in danger of
being tempted to ridicule the subjects themselves upon
which he wrote. John manifested great respect towards
Epiphanius, and invited him to join in the meetings of
his church, and to dwell with him. But Epiphanius
declared that he would neither reside with John, nor pray
with him, unless he would denounce the works of Origen
and expel Dioscorus and his companions from the city.
Not considering it just to act in the manner proposed
until judgment had been passed on the case, John tried
to postpone the adoption of further measures to some
future time. In the meantime his enemies met together,
and arranged that on the day when the people would be
assembled in the church of the Apostles, Epiphanius
should publicly pronounce condemnation on the works of
Origen, and on Dioscorus and his companions as the par-
tizans of this writer ; and also denounce the bishop of the
city as the abettor of Dioscorus. By this means, it was
hoped, that the affections of the people would be alienated
from their bishop. The following day, when Epiphanius
was about entering the church, in order to carry his design
into execution, he was stopped by Serapion, at the com-
mand of John, who had received intimation of the plot.
Serapion proved to Epiphanius that while the project he
had devised was unjust in itself, it could be of no personal
advantage to him, for that, if it should excite a popular
insurrection, he would be regarded as responsible for the
outrages that might follow. By these arguments Epi-
phanius was induced to relinguish his designs.

About this time, the son of the Empress was attacked
by a dangerous illness, and the mother, apprehensive of
consequences, sent to implore Epiphanius to pray for
him. Epiphanius returned for answer, that her son would
recover provided that she would avoid all intercourse with

EPIPHANIUS. 581

the heretic Dioscorus and his companions. To this mes-
sage the Empress repHed as follows : ' If it be the will of
God to take my son, His will be done. The Lord Who
gave me my child, can take him back again. You have
not power to raise the dead, otherwise your archdeacon
would not have died.' She alluded to Chrispio, the arch-
deacon, who had died a short time previously.

Ammon and his companions went to Epiphanius, at
the permission of the Empress. Epiphanius inquired
who they were, and Ammon replied, ' We are, 0 father,
the Great Brothers : allow us to ask whether you have
read any of our works or those of our disciples.' On
Epiphanius replying that he had not seen them, he con-
tinued, * How is it then that you condemn us as heretics,
when you have no proof as to what sentiments we may
hold.' Epiphanius said that he had formed his judgment
by the reports he had heard on the subject ; and Ammon
replied, ' We have pursued a very different line of conduct
from yours. We have conversed with your disciples, and
read your works, and among others, that entitled The
Anchor. When we have met with persons who have
ridiculed your opinions, and asserted that your writings
are replete with heresy, we have defended you as our
father. Ought you then to condemn upon mere report,
and without any substantial proofs, those who have so
zealously defended your sentiments, and spoken well of
you?' Epiphanius was affected by this discourse, and
dismissed them. Soon after, he embarked for Cyprus,
either because he recognized the futility of his journey to
Constantinople, or because, as there is reason to believe,
God had revealed to him his approaching death ; for he
died while on his voyage back to Cyprus. It is reported
that he said to the bishops who had accompanied him to
the place of embarkation, ' I leave you the city, the palace,
and the stage, for I shall shortly depart.' I have been
informed by several persons that John predicted that
Epiphanius would die at sea, and that this latter predicted
3i2

583 EPIPHANIUS.

the deposition of John. For it appears that when the
dispute between them was at its height, Epiphanius said
to John, ' I hope you will not die a bishop,' and that John
replied, ' I hope you will never return to your bishopric'
Such was the animosity of even saints, as they were
called, in those days.

The intrinsic value of the works of Epiphanius is not
great ; but as throwing light upon the opinions and prac-
tices of the age in which he lived they are most valuable.
To him modern writers refer when they have occasion to
write on ancient heresies, or on Scripture weights and
measures. His principal works are — I. The Pannarium,
or treatise against heresies. The title signifies, as he
himself says, a little box full of diverse antidotes against
several sorts of poison. 2. The Anacephaliosis, or
abridgment of the above work. 3. The Anchorate, so
called because it is a kind of anchor to which tlie faith-
ful may adhere. 4. A Treatise of Weights and Measures.
5. A Treatise on the Twelve Precious Stones on the
High Priest's Garment. 6. An Exposition of the Catholic
Faith. 7. An Epistle to John of Jerusalem. 8. One to
St. Jerome.

The Pannarium is the most important ; it is divided
into three books, which are subdivided into seven sections.
The first book contains three of these subdivisions, and
each of the others two. The whole includes the account
of eighty heresies. By heresy (ai^s(7i<; from ai^ew I choose,
hence the word 'AtpErtKo? a heretic, one, who acting on his
private judgment, makes a particular choice and obstinately
adheres to it) Epiphanius means " a sect or society who
have particular religious sentiments which differ from
those generally held by other religious people," who, from
holding no peculiar views, are called Catholics. Hence
those who made choice of a particular creed, different from
what had been agreed upon by general councils, were
termed heretics, especially if they obstinately persevered
in and defended those opinions.

EPIPHANIUS. 583

Epiphanius is one of the writers to whom we can refer
for proof of the errors of modern Romanism, and for
justification of our Reformation. For example, against
invocation of saints, " Neither Elias (he says) nor John,
nor Thecla, nor any of the saints, is to be worshipped.
For that ancient error shall not prevail with us, that we
should forsake the living God, and worship the things that
are made by Him. For they worshipped and served the
creature above the Creator, and became fools. For if He
will not permit angels to be worshipped, how much more
would He not have her who was born of Anna? Let
Mary, therefore, be had in honour, but let the Lord be
worshipped." Again, he observes, — " That the creature
cannot be worshipped, without injuring the true faith, and
falling back to the errors of the ancient pagans, who for-
sook the worship of the true God, to adore the creature ;
or without incurring the malediction spoken of by St. Paul,
— They worshipped and served the creature more than the
Creator, Who is blessed for ever ; therefore God gave them
up to vile affections." " Sed neque Helias, neque Joannes
— neque quisquam sanctorum adoratur, &c." — Epiph.
Cent. Hoeres. Hser. 79 & 62.

As decisive is his testimony against the doctrine of a
purgatorial state. " In the age to come, (he says) there is
no advantage of fasting, no call to repentance, no display
of charity : none are admitted after their departure hence,
nor can we then correct what was before amiss. There
Lazarus goeth not to Dives, nor Dives to Lazarus ; the
garners are sealed, the combat finished, the crosvns dis-
tributed. Those who have not yet encountered, have no
more opportunity; and those who have conquered, are
not cast out. All is finished after we have departed
hence." " In future enim seculo post hominis mortem,"
&c. — Epiph. Cent. Haeres. Hser. 59. Chrysostom, in the
fourth homily on the Epistle to the Hebrews, (second
chapter and fourteenth verse,) largely expatiates on the
victory which faith in the sacrifice and death of Christ,

584 EPIPHANIUS.

gives the sincere believer, over the fears of death. Speak-
ing of the death of believers, and the reason why we
should not griuve for them, since they have passed to
happiness, he adds, — " Tell me what mean these festal
lamps in funerals ? Is it not that we bring forth the
dead like victorious combatants ? Why are the hymns ?
Is it not because we glorify God, for crowning him that is
departed ; that He hath freed him from labour, and from
the iear of death, and taken him to Himself ? Consider
what ye sing, when ye say, — Return unto thy rest, 0 my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And
do you weep? If so, is it not a mere acting a part, a
dissimulation? For if you believe what you say, you
lament unnecessarily ; but if you deem it not true, (do not
believe in the rest of the departed soul,) why do you
sing?" "Die mihi quid sibi volunt istie Campades fes-
tivae ?" — Chrysos. In Ep. ad Hash. Horn. 4, torn 4, p. 87.
And he concludes most prophetically, by saying, — " I
very much fear, lest by these means, some grievous disease
should creep into the Church." " Etenim satis timeo ne
isto modo pessimus quidam morbus in ecclesiam subin-
tret, &c." — Ibid, p. 88. In the fifth homily on Genesis,
— " He that in the present life shall not wash away his
sins, shall find no consolation hereafter ;" as he saith, —
" In hell who shall confess to thee ?" For this is the
time of care, conflict, and strife; that of crowning, retri-
bution and reward." " Neque enim qui in praesenti vita
peccata non abluerit, &c.'' — In Gen. Hom. 5, torn. 5, p.
20. And in the second, on the rich man and Lazarus, —
" When we are departed hence, it is not in our power to
repent, or wash away the sins we have committed." " Si-
mul atque vero discesserimusilluc non est postea in nobis
situm poenitere, neque commissa diluere." — De Lazaro,
tom. 1, p. 00.

The best edition of the works of Epiphanius is that
by Petavius, in Greek and Latin, Paris, 106*2. * Cologne,
1082. — Socrates. Sozomen. St. Jeronis. Fleimj.

EPISCOPIUS.

EPISCOPIUS, 8IM0N.

Simon Ensconus, (See the Life of Arminim) whose real
name was Bishoff, was born at Amsterdam in 1583. After
he had gone through the Latin schools at Amsterdam, he
went to study at Loyden in the year 1602. His father
died of the plague in 100-2, and his mother in 1001;
neither of which calamities however retarded his studies
in the least. He was admitted master of arts in the year
1000, and from thenceforward applied himself wholly to
the study of divinity. He made so great a progress in it,
that he was judged in a short time worthy of the ministry.
The magistrates of Amsterdam wished he might be pro-
moted to it ; but he met with several difficulties in his
way, because, during the violent controversy between
Gomarus and Arminius about predestination, he declared
for the latter. This made him weary of the university of
Leyden, and he went to Franeker in the year 1009 ; but
he did not continue there long, for he found that by dis-
puting too vehemently, he had exasperated the professor
Librandus Lubertus, who was a zealous Gornarist. Ar-
minius was at that time labouring under the illness, of
which at length he died ; on which account Episcopius
went to Leyden to pay a last visit to his friend and patron.
He watched him night and day, but was not present at his
death, as the friends of Arminius intimating that the
disease would be of long continuance, he had returned to
his duties at Franeker. He had, however, received his
last directions as to the management of the Arrainian
party, of which, from this time, he may be considered as
the leader. The love of disputation was the evil of the
day, and its prevalence induces us to fear, that while
much was said about religious doctrine, the pure r<;ligion
and undefiled of the heart was much neglected : such,
indeed, would be the inference from the conduct of the
Calvinists of the age, both in Holland and in Eng-
land. Episcopius was the most skilful disputant of the
age, and his skill in refuting his opponents made theia

586 EPISCOPIUS.

especially bitter against him. This was the case with
Librandus at Franeker. There was a determination on
the part of the heads of the university to punish, with the
utmost severity, all who treated with contumely the name
or doctrine of Calvin, just as if Calvin had been inspired.

In 1610 he was called to the ministry amidst much
unfair opposition on the part of the calvinistic teachers ;
he became minister of Bleyswick, a village dependent
upon Rotterdam.

The year 1611 is memorable as the year in which the
Arminian ministers of Holland presented that remon-
strance to the states, from which their denomination of
Remonstrants is derived. This remonstrance was occasion-
ed by the persecution to which they were subjected from
the calvinistic ministers, and in it the Remonstrants first
stated the doctrines they rejected, which they summed up
in five points :

I. That God, as some assert, of His own will, by an
eternal and irreversible decree, had ordained some from
amongst men who were not yet created, much less con-
sidered as fallen, to everlasting life ; and the others, by
far the greater part, to eternal damnation, without any
regard to their obedience or disobedience, and that for the
purpose of manifesting His justice and mercy ; and for
the effecting this purpose, He had so appointed the means,
that those whom He had ordained to salvation, should
necessarily and unavoidably be saved, and the others
necessarily and unavoidably be damned.

II. Or as others taught, that God had considered man-
kind, not only as created, but as fallen in Adam, and
consequently liable to the curse ; from which fall and con-
demnation He determined to redeem some, and, for the
display of His mercy, make them partakers of salvation ;
and to leave others, even children of the covenant, under
the curse, for the manifestation of His justice, without
any regard to their belief or unbelief. And for the accom-
plishment of His will. He hath instituted the means by

EPISCOPIUS. 587

which the elect should necessarily be saved, and the repro-
bates necessarily be damned.

III. That consequently, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the
world, did not die for all men, but only for those who were
elected, as stated in the first or second manner.

IV. That the Spirit of Christ worked with irresistible
force on the elect, in order to beget faith in them, that
they might be saved ; but from the reprobates, necessary
and sufficient grace was withheld.

V. That those who had once received true faith, how-
ever they might afterwards awfully sin, could never wholly
or finally lose it.

Their own sentiments they stated thus : —

I. That God, from all eternity, hath decreed to elect to
everlasting life, all those who, through His grace, believe in
Jesus Christ, and in the same belief, and obedience of faith,
persevere to the end ; but the unconverted and unbeliev-
ing, He had resolved to reject to everlasting damnaticm.

II. That in consequence of this decree, Christ the
Saviour of the world, died for all and eveiy man, so that
by His death. He hath obtained reconciliation and pardon
of sins for all men, nevertheless, in such a manner, that
none but the faithful really and effectually enjoy the bene-
fits thereof.

III. That man could not obtain saving faith of himself,
or by the strength of his own free will, but stood in need
of God's grace, through Christ, to be made the subject of
its power.

IV. Therefore this grace is the cause of the beginning,
the progress, and the completion of man's salvation ; in
so much, that no one could believe, or persevere in faith,
without this operating grace, and consequently, that all
good works must be ascribed to the grace of God in
Christ. Nevertheless, the manner of the operation of this
grace was not irresistible.

V. That true believers had sufiicient strength, through
Divine grace, to resist and overcome Satan, sin, the world,

588 EPISCOPIUS.

and their own lusts ; but whether they might not, through
their negligence, apostatize and loose the power of holy
saving truth, the testimony of a well-directed conscience,
and forfeit that grace, must first be more fully inquired
into, under the guidance of the holy Scriptures, before
they could, with confidence and unhesitating minds, assert
and teach it.

The remonstrance was favourably received by the States,
but was violently attacked by the Calvinists, who, according
to their custom at all periods, strange to say, had recourse
to personalities and calumny ; they complained that the
statements were ambiguous, obscure, and contradictory to
the tenor of the holy Scriptures; and declaring their perfect
readiness, at any suitable time and place, to prove their
assertions. Against these accusations, the States judged it
proper to allow the Remonstrants a hearing ; and in order
that they might not, upon so important an occasion, come
to a hasty decision, they determined that twelve ministers,
— six from each party, — should appear before them, and
thus in the presence of the noble and mighty Lords, the
States, should hold a friendly conference with each other,
that the matters in dispute might be examined into, most
carefully and seriously. This was the famous conference
of the Hague.

Before the conference commenced, the Calvinistic party
presented a memorial to their High Mightinesses the
States of Holland, which they called a Contra- Remon-
strance, and on which account they were afterwards desig-
nated Contra- Remonstrants, in opposition to theArminians
or Remonstrants. In this document they gave a state-
ment of their own opinions on the five points, and
opposed those of the Remonstrants. The latter afterwards
replied at great length to the objections, in a work entitled
Pressior Declaratio, a further account or declaration. This
conference being closed, the ministers on each side drew
up a statement of their opinions, as to the best method
to be adopted in order to terminate these controversies.
The Contra-Remonstrants pressed for the assembling of a

EPISCOPIUS. 589

synod, where the points in debate should be fully exam-
ined and decided upon according to the word of God.
The Piemonstrants, on the contrary, gave it as their judg-
ment, that the more preferable way would be, for the
present, to allow mutual toleration, in consequence, they
said, of men's minds having been inflamed for a length of
time, and alienated from each other, occasioned by the
agitating of the points in question, and that after a period
of time, they might become more calm, and thereby be
the better prepared to enter upon the examination of
them with less of party feeling, and with the happiest
effects, especially if the various synods adopted mild and
healing measures.

The States of course wisely declined deciding on which
side the truth was found, but expressed a strong desire
that the opposite parties should cultivate the spirit of
tolerance and forbearance towards each other, and con-
firmed a resolution they had previously published, which
was to this effect; — " that as they never had intended, or
did intend, that the opii ons of the Piemonstrants with
reference to the five points, should be imposed upon any
body ; so neither did they think fit, on the other hand,
that any person should be burthened with opinions beyond
the said points contrary to his conscience ; but that both
parties should live mutually like brethren in Christian
charity, in the ecclesiastical employments they actually
had or might have."

This counsel was not followed by the Contra-Remon-
strants, whose violence could scarcely be kept within
bounds; meanwhile, Episcopius, in 1612, was chosen
professor of divinity in the university of Leyden. The
Calvinists resorted to their accustomed arts, and raised a
moral persecution against him, Calvinism in their minds
being confounded with Christianity. Surely these Cal-
vinists professed to hold the Bible and the Bible only, and
the right of private judgment ; so did Episcopius ; why
was not his judgment as likely to be right, as that of those

VOL. lY. 3 K

590 EPISCOPIUS.

who persecuted him because his private judgment differed
from theirs, and from that of John Calvin. All kinds of
falsehood were propagated against him by wicked Calvin-
ists, and were readily believed by the weak and the malig-
nant. Episcopius himself remarks, that on one occasion
he with difiQculty escaped being murdered; and on another
occasion, a blacksmith, said to be a man of vital religion,
because he believed himself among the elect, ran after
him with a red hot iron, crying, " Stop the Arminian, the
disturber of the Church," and Episcopius, it is said,
" would certainly have been knocked down by this brute,"
unless his friends had interfered to protect him. It seems
that since the day when Calvin murdered Servetus, there
has been a curse upon Calvinists, as in every age and
country, they are the most violent and intolerant of all
parties, and the most unscrupulous in their manner of
assailing their opponents ; they nickame calvinistic pecu-
liarities the Gospel, and think themselves, like the inqui-
sitors in the Romish Church, friends of God, when they
punish or persecute those who do not preach their gospel,
confounded, as in their minds it is, with the everlasting
Gospel of Christ our Lord, " The calvinists," says Sir
James Mackintosh, " now punished with death those
dissenters who only followed the example of the most
renowned Protestant Reformers, by a rebellion against
authority, for the sake of obtaining the paramount autho-
rity of reason." The Arminians were certainly wrong in
not shewing sufficient deference to authority, and were
subsequently led into error thereby: but the calvinists
were not the persons to complain on that subject ; neither
could they prove why more of deference should be paid to
the authority of Calvin than to that of Arminius. Our
English reformers did defer to primitive authority, but
not so as to supersede the proper office of reason in theo-
logical investigations.

in the year 1614, Episcopius began his comment
ii])on the first Epistle of St. John, which gave occasion
to various rumours, all of them tending to prove him

EPISCOPIUS. 591

a Socinian. The year after, taking the opportunity of
the vacation, he went to Paris, for the sake of seeing
that city : which journey occasioned him no small
trouble. For he was no sooner returned home, than his
adversaries published, that he had had secret conferences
with Father Cotton, in order to concert the ruin of the
Protestant Church and the United Provinces; that he
avoided all conversation with Peter du Moulin, minister
at Paris ; or, as others say, that the latter declined all
conference with him, seeing him so intimate with the
enemies of his country and of the Protestant religion.
False and groundless as these reports were, it cost Epis-
copius some pains to refute them.

Still Episcopius and the Remonstrants, forming the
great body of learned, enlightened, and liberal religionists
in the Low Countries, were protected and supported by
many of the most influential men in the state, until
Prince Maurice, to further his objects of private ambition,
threw himself into the arms of the Calvinists, who, under
his patronage, convened the synod of Dort, the most un-
fairly conducted assembly of men professing to be religious
ever held. That which is now recognized as the funda-
mental principle of ultra-protestantism, the Bible and
private judgment, was maintained by the Arminians : they
were indeed the first body of men who really did so : the
Calvinists refused to argue with them, or to hold a con-
ference; holding the liible, and Calvin's interpretation of
it, as expressed in the catechism they had received, they
professed only to sit as judges, and to pronounce sentence
upon those who did not receive Calvinism as the Gospel.
King James I. sent over some of his court divines to attend
the assembly, but they appeared there merely as ambas-
sadors from the King, they had no ecclesiastical authority.
One of them, " the ever memorable John Hales," at that
time a Calvinist, was so disgusted with the Contra- Piomon-
strants, and so convinced by the reasonings of Episcopius,
as to be induced, as he said of himself, to " bid John
Calvin good night."

592 EPISCOPIUS.

The synod of Dort was opened on the 13th of Novem-
ber, 1618, and was occupied during the first session with
preliminaries. At the second session John Bojerman
was appointed president, an appointment which augured
ill for the Remonstrants, as he had openlj avowed it to be
his opinion that all heretics, meaning all who were not
Calvinists, should be punished with death, and had trans-
lated into the Dutch language the celebrated treatise of
Beza, de Hsereticis a civili magistratu puniendis, in which
this doctrine is maintained in its fullest extent. His two
assessors and two secretaries were men of like mind. The
Remonstrants arrived at Dort on the 5th of December,
and were introduced to the synod. Episcopius, who was
their spokesman, saluted the commissioners and divines.
He said, that the Remonstrants were come to defend their
cause, in the presence of that venerable assembly, by
reasons grounded upon the Word of God, or to be better
instructed by the same Word. He added, that the cited
ministers, being arrived late the day before, requested a
little more time to make themselves ready to enter into a
conference about the articles in question. After that dis-
course, the Remonstrants went out. The synod resolved
to make them appear the next day. Polyander, having
observed the words to enter into a conference, used by
Episcopius, said, that the Remonstrants should be told,
they had not been cited to enter into a conference, but
to propose their opinions, and submit them to the judg-
ment of the synod. This advice was approved. The
Remonstrants were sent for, and told by the president,
that the synod met to judge them, and not to confer with
them.

The Remonstrants complained of the bad reception
they had met with. They said, that when they came in,
many members of the synod had much ado to take off
their hats ; that it was no difficult thing to judge of their
hatred b^ their countenance; that they were obliged to
appear before an assembly, consisting " of their greatest
enemies, &c.

EPISCOPIUS. 59:^

The same day the Remonstrants visited the foreign
divines, to desire their good offices. Most of those divines
received them civilly. Some deplored their condition :
others appeared prepossessed against them, particularly
Diodati of Geneva, who told them in a reproachful man-
ner, that they had spoken of Calvin with contempt, and
that if they had preserved their power, they would have
treated their adversaries, as they were now treated by
them.

On the 7th of December Episcopius delivered an oration
to the assembly, which, though much too long to be tran-
scribed here, would amply repay the perusal. It is to be
found in Limborch and in C alder. One passage will be
read with interest, as shewing the mode of proceeding
adopted by the Calvinists. " In consequence," he says,
" of the reports spread against the Remonstrants, an in-
quisitorial spirit awoke, and a species of vigilant scrutiny
was adopted, under which was noticed and criticised every
word and expression we uttered. Nay, so far was this
carried, that tribunals were instituted, where not only our
words, but the very letters and syllables of which they
were composed, with the intonations of our voices, were
subject to animadversion, whilst the least departure in
controversy from the usual phraseology became an occasion
of suspicion, it being asserted that under such deviations
were hidden embryo errors, lurking as serpents and other
reptiles are wont to do under stones. Not only so, but
our private conversations or public communications were
sifted, and from these were collected words and expres-
sions, which in their single and separate state were light
and trivial, but by being seen in a collected form were
made to appear important and deserving of attention.
Thus, in whatever way the Remonstrants acted, they were
made the objects of suspicion and mistrust. Were they
silent? — this was said to be the result of that cunning
which was fostering some dark and dangerous design.
Were they open and frank ? — then they were branded
3k 2

594 EPISCOPIUS.

with being insolent and contumacious, while all they said
and did was exaggerated and held up to public view under
the strongest colourings of hyperbole."

It would occupy too much time, neither would it be
interestiug to the reader, were we to enter into a detailed
account of the proceedings of this synod ; the abridged
account of which occupies nearly two hundred pages in
Brandt. The proceedings throughout were marked by a
violence of temper, and an unjust spirit, which contrast
remarkably with the dignified deportment of the Remon-
strants. The request of the Remonstrants was that they
might argue; the demand of the Contra- Remonstrants,
that their opponents should submit to their authority,
although, why their authority, or that of Calvin, should
be greater than that of any other person, is not apparent.
The Remonstrants excepted against the synod, and refused
to submit to the order made by that assembly: which was,
that the Remonstrants should neither explain nor main-
tain their opinions, but as far as the synod should judge
it necessary. Upon their refusing to submit to this order,
they were expelled the synod ; and measures were taken
to judge them by their writings. They defended their
cause with the pen ; and it was Episcopius that composed
most of the pieces they presented on this occasion, and
which were pubhshed some time after. The synod deposed
them from their functions ; and because they refused to sub-
scribe a writing, which contained a promise not to perform
privately any of their ministerial functions, they were
banished out of the territories of the commonwealth.

Some of the Remonstrants were imprisoned for life ;
Episcopius and his immediate followers retired in the
first instance to Antwerp, and afterwards into France ;
and although the Spaniards endeavoured to shake their
patriotism, and the Roman catholics, while treating them
with generosity, used many efforts to convert them to the
Church of Rome, they remained steadfast to their princi-
ples, and true to their country. Episcopius was employed

EPISCOPIUS. 595

not only in defending his own party, but also in attacking
the errors of the Church of Eome ; this he did with great
ability, being provoked to it by Waddingus, a Jesuit.
The privations of the banished liemonstrants were great ;
and persecution raged during the life-time of Maurice,
against all who were suspected of Arminianism, in the
united provinces. But by degrees the Calvinists became
odious to the people, and many anecdotes are recorded of
the well-merited rebukes they received on account of their
bigotry. A facetious and sartiricril man, of the name of
Robert Robertson, who did not belong to the Remon-
strants, was met one day, while walking on the beach at
Horn, by two Calvinist ministers, who knowing the dis-
position of the man, were disposed, says Brandt, to joke
with him ; and they accosted him thus, " Well fiobert,
you seem very pensive, what is the matter with you ?"
"It is true, sirs," said he, " 1 am pensive, for I was just
considering who was the author of sin." " Well," replied
the others, " and whom do you consider to be its author?"
" Why," said he, " when it was first introduced into our
world, Adam laid the blame upon Eve ; Eve laid the blame
upon the serpent, who, at that time was very young,
ignorant, and modest, and bore the charge in silence, but
having become more experienced and daring, he has been
to the synod of Dort, and laid the blame upon God."

That many of the members of the synod, and the Cal-
vinists of the Continent, did in that day charge God with
being the author of sin, the ecclesiastical history of that
period furnishes decisive evidence.

It was thus gradually that the public mind was pre-
pared for the return of the exiled Remonstrants, and on
the death of Prince Maurice, when he was succeeded by
Prince Henry, who favoured their cause, Episcopius and
the other exiles ventured to appear once more in their
native land. Episcopius returned to Holland in 16:<J0, and
was made a minister of the church of the Remonstrants
at Rotterdam. In 1634 he was made rector of the newly
established Remonstrant College at Amsterdam. He

596 EPISCOPIUS.

married the year after his return, but had no children.
In August, 1640, hiring a vessel, he went with his wife to
Rotterdam : but after noon, while he was yet upon his
voyage, a fever seized him ; and, to add to his indispo-
sition, about evening came on such a storm of thunder
and rain, as had not been known for many years. All
these hindrances made them arrive so late at Rotterdam,
that the gates of the city were shut : and the long time
he was obliged to wait, before he could get them opened,
increased his disorder so much, that he was confined to
his bed for the four following months. He recovered ; yet
perceived the effects of this illness, in the stone and other
complaints, as long as he lived. He died on the 4th of
April, 1643, of the saii^e illness which had killed his wife,
viz. a retention of urine ; having lost his sight some weeks
before. Limborch tells us, that the moon was under an
eclipse at the hour of Episcopius s death ; which some
considered as a fit emblem of the Church, which was
then deprived of a great deal of light, by the disappearing
of such a luminary as Episcopius. He tells us also, that
Episcopius 's friends and relations had some medals struck
with the images of truth and liberty upon them, in
remembrance of him, who had been a most strenuous
assertor of both. He had wonderful influence with his
party, and appears to have been beloved by all who knew
him. There is some asperity in his writings, but it must
be remembered how sorely he was provoked. He was
not a man of extensive reading, and was deficient in
theological information ; but his powders of reasoning were
wonderfully great, and except in his contests with the
Romanists, he had no occasion for theological acquire-
ments, the theology of Calvinism embracing a very small
compass. He had the w^eakness to despise the theology
which he did not possess, and for want of which, while
skilful in arguing against the heresies of Calvin, he became
a heretic himself, on some of the fundamental voities of
the Christian faith, as may be seen on reference to the
works of Bishop Bull. His life was published by Lim-

ERASMUS. 597

borch, at Amsterdam, in 1701, and is a work of great
interest. He first digested under a regular system the
opinions of Arminius, and his learning and genius have
given him a place next to the founder of the sect. He
wrote a great many treatises on the subjects of difference
between the Arminians and the Calvinists, and between
Protestants in general and the Roman Church. His
works were collected and published at Amsterdam, 1665
— 1671, and at Leyden in 1678. — L'wihorch. Brandt.
Calder.

ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS.

Desiderius Erasmus was born at Rotterdam, October
28th, 1467, the natural son of Gerard of Tergou. His
name was that of his father, Gerard, which signifying
amiable, he converted into the Latin Desiderius, and the
Greek Erasmus, though it would have been more correct
to style himself Erasmius. His father took great pains
with his education, though he is, perhaps not correctly,
reported to have been a heavy youth. He studied at
Daventer, in Guelderland, at that period one of the best
schools in the Netherlands, where he had for his school-
fellow, a youth who was always his friend, and died as
pope, Adrian VI, While there he lost both his parents,
and being left to the care of unconscientious guardians,
an attempt was made to force him into a monastery, in
order that his guardians might enjoy his patrimony. To
monks and to a monastic life he always felt the greatest
repugnance ; for, generally speaking, the corruption and
the hypocrisy of the monkish system were such as to dis-
gust every one who had any self-respect. He was, how-
ever, compelled at length by his relations to enter among
the regular canons at Stein, near Tergou, in 1486. Here
he met and formed a friendship with a distinguished
scholar, William Hermann.

As he admits in one of his letters, with much regret,

598 ERASMUS.

that his conduct was at one time the reverse of what it
ought to be, this disgraceful part of his life is generally
attributed to his residence at Stein.

His character as a scholar being now established, and
Henry a Bergis, Bishop of Caubray, at that time prepar-
ing to go to Rome, and wantiog a secretary who could
read Latin with ease, and write it with accuracy, Erasmus
was received into his family. Under the protection of the
bishop he studied at the university of Paris, and was
ordained priest in 1492.

Erasmus was continually complaining that his patrons
did not fulfil their promises ; though certainly, in the
art of begging he was an adept; but the Bishop of
Caubray seems to have kept him short of money, and he
was consequently obhged to take pupils. Among his
pupils. Lord Montjoy, an Englishman, was one, and con-
tinued through life his sincere friend and most generous
patron. In 1497 he visited England, and Lord Montjoy
was devoted to his protection. Erasmus went from Lon-
don to Oxford, where he studied in St. Mary's College,
opposite to New-Inn Hall, a college not now in existence.
Here he became intimate with Colet, (See his Life)
Linacer, Sir Thomas More, and other distinguished men,
and here too the study of Greek having been renewed, he
studied that language. With England, and the people of
England, he was delighted, and he speaks of our learning
at that period, as " not trite and superficial, but deep,
accurate, true old^Greek and Latin learning."

He revisited England in 1499; and in 1500, having
returned to the continent, he published his Adagia, and
afterwards his De Copia Verborum, and a piece De Con-
scubendis Epistolis, all of which he dedicated to Lord
Montjoy.

His fame was now established, but we find him in his
letters continually pleading poverty, and wearying his
i^atrons by requesting them to supply him with money.
He may havel occasionally been in want, but in general
he seems to have fared as well as we could expect a

ERASMUS. 599

man who had no certain income. We find him speaking
of his two horses and two servants. Sometimes his
begging letters are so offensive, that we must make
allowance for his less enthusiastic patrons if they became
disgusted. In 1503 he wrote some theological pieces,
reflecting upon the religion of the age. But at this
period he could do this with impunity. Erasmus would
find many most devoted churchmen w^ho were readv to
agree with him in thinking that the Church required a
reformation, although they were not prepared to sanction
the kind of reform which Luther attempted to introduce.

Erasmus frequently visited England, and in Dr. Warham,
Archbishop of Canterbury, he found a liberal patron,
and a judicious friend. Such, too, he found in Tonstall,
Bishop of Durham, Sir Thomas Mere, and others already
alluded to, not forgetting his quondam and ever grateful
and admiring pupil Lord Montjoy. In a letter to Colet,
Dean of St. Paul's, he tells him that "there was no country
which had furnished him with so many learned and
generous benefactors, as even the city of London." About
this time he took his doctor's degree at Turin ; and on
the 10th of November, 1506, he witnessed the triumphant
entry of the pope into Bologna. With the pomp assumed
by Pope Julius II., Erasmus was much disgusted; the
pope regarded himself as a sovereign Prince, and acted
accordingly ; Erasmus viewed him as a Christian bishop.
There is always a difficulty in uniting the two characters,
which nothing but deep piety, combined with good taste,
can overcome. The same kind of difficulty is experienced
by our own bishops, who have to unite the two characters
of peers of a wealthy land, and pastors of the flock of
Christ.

At Bologna he declined to read lectures, fearing to
appear ridiculous to the students, the Italian mode of
pronouncing Latin being so different from that of the
Germans. He revised his Adagia, and went to Venice to
have it printed by Aldus Manutius, who printed several
other of his works. Here, and at Padua, where he super-

600 ERASMUS.

intended the education of Alexander, a natural son of
James IV, of Scotland, he pursued his studies with dili-
gence, and with satisfaction to himself. He studied the
Greek authors under the celebrated Musurus.

From Padua he went to Sienna, and there leaving his
royal pupil, he went to Rome, where he was received with
all the honours due to so distinguished a scholar. Leo
the Tenth, at that time Cardinal John de Medicis, with
other cardinals, who were the patrons of learning and
learned men, welcomed him with enthusiasm. Indeed
Leo the Tenth, like Erasmus himself, thought more of
literature than religion. By Cardinal Grim ami he was
urged to remain at Rome, and promises of high patronage
were held out to him ; but, having an invitation from the
King of England to visit England, he determined to quit
Rome. He seems at this time to have made up his mind
to settle in England, and to have expected high preferment
there. Although Henry the Eighth had succeeded to the
throne in 1509, and was the professed friend of Erasmus,
yet he complains that his reception was not what he
expected it to be. Perhaps he had expected too much ;
and there was a suspicion that he was not quite sincere
in his professions to those wiio patronized him. He had
no reason to complain of any want of attention, but the
money he wanted, and for which he did not hesitate to
beg with an importunity not the most dignified, did not
come so freely in.

The celebrated Bishop Fisher, at that time head of
Queen's College, invited him to Cambridge, where he
became Lady Margaret's professor of divinity, and also
professor of Greek. He did not probably retain these
situations long, for he was always desirous of change, and
discontented. His habits were, from the state perhaps of
his health, expensive, and he was ever complaining. We
may here remark that Erasmus had at various times pieces
of preferment given to him, which he held for a very short
time, and then resigned, on condition that his successor
should pay him a pension. This kind of arrangement

ERASMUS. 601

was openly made, and was perhaps customary. It was
not worse than our custom of permitting a non-resident
to draw the whole income of a living, deducting only the
curate's salary.

In 1515, and 151G, Erasmus was in different parts of
the Continent, and had the prospect of an offer of a
bishopric in Sicily, an office for which he knew himself to
be incompetent, and which he could not have accepted, as
it would have interfered with his literary pursuits. He
was nominated to it by Charles of Austria ; but it was
discovered that the patronage was vested in the pope.

He received at this time frequent invitations to Rome,
but through life he avoided that city, feeling that he
should be urged when there, to write against Luther, with
whom he had so many feelings in common, that it would
have been impossible for him to write in a manner satis
factory to the papal party, whom at the same time he was
unwillincf to offend.

o

In 15 J 6 he printed at Basil his edition of the New
Testament, a work of such labour, that, in preparing it for
the press, he injured his constitution, which was always
delicate. This was the first Greek Testament which was
printed, and though, of course, it was attacked by some
parties, yet such was the demand for it, that in the course
of twelve years it was reprinted three times. He com-
menced also this year his edition of St. Jerome, which was
completed in 1526.

Erasmus, though not a religious man himself, had
from an early period distinguished himself by his censure
of those abuses which existed in the Church, and by his
assertions that a reform was necessary. At that time the
monks were the parties determined to maintain the exist-
ing system, and to resist the movement. Erasmus was
strongly opposed to the monks, since he regarded them as
opposed to the literature he idolized. They returned
hatred for hatred ; and were continually annoying him
and alarming him by asserting that he was a Luihernn in
disguise.

VOL. IV. 3 L

60^ ERASMUS.

That Erasmus sympathized with the first movements
of Luther is evident ; the monks asserted that he laid the
egg which Luther hatched. But his sympathy was rather
that of a man of literature than that of a divine. He
thought the movement would be favourable to the re-
vival of learning. He was deeply impressed by Luther's
mental powers, and he saw him gathering around him
some of the most commanding intellects. But he became
alarmed at his violence and want of discretion : and he
perceived that, instead of reforming, he would cause a
schism in the Church. Although he still regarded the
monks as hypocrites, and thought a reformation necessary,
he doubted whether Luther was the man to conduct it.
And his object was not to be a leading theologian, but to
enjoy in peace the pursuits of literature. Erasmus, there-
fore, remained with the party opposed to Luther, though
admitting that Luther was in many things right, and
nothing seems to have annoyed him so much as being
called a Lutheran.

It is necessary to bear all this in mind in order to un-
derstand the conduct of Erasmus. In a letter to Cardinal
Wolsey, in 1518, after some compliments, he heavily com-
plained of the malice of certain calumniators and enemies
of literature, who thwarted his designs of employing
human learning for sacred purposes. " These wretches,"
says he, " ascribe to Erasmus every thing that is odious ;
and confound the cause of literature with that of Luther
and religion, though they have no connection with each
other. As to Luther, he is perfectly a stranger to me,
and I have read nothing of his, except two or three pages ;
not that I despise him, but because my own pursuits will
not give me leisure ; and yet, as I am informed, there are
some who scruple not to affirm, that I have actually been
his helper. If he has written well, the praise belongs not
to me ; nor the blame, if he has written ill ; since in all
his works there is not a line that came from me. His
life and conversation are universally commended : and it
is no small prejudice in his favour, that his morals are

ERASMUS. 603

unblameable, and that calumny itself can fasten no re-
proach on his life. If I had really had time to peruse his
writings, I am not so conceited of my own abilities, as to
pass a judgment upon the performances of so eminent a
divine. 1 was once against Luther, purely for fear he
should bring an odium upon literature, which is too
much suspected of evil already, and I know full well how
invidious it is to oppose those received opinions which
produce so plentiful a harvest to priests and monks."

Luther was fully aware of the advantage it would be
to secure to his side the authority of Erasmus, and in
1619 addressed to him a very courteous letter. To this
Erasmus replied, addressing him as his " dearest brother
in Christ," and telling him of the uproar his works had
occasioned at Louvain. As for himself he had declared
" to the divines of that university that he had not read
these works, and therefore could neither approve nor dis-
approve of them ; but that it would be better to answer
them, than to rail at them before the people, especially as
the moral character of their author was blameless." These
divines of Louvain had attacked the New Testament of
Erasmus, and he remarks of them — *' There are none,"
says he, "who bark at me more furiously, than they who
never saw even the outside of my book. Try the experi-
ment upon any of them, and you shall find that I tell you
what is true. When you meet with one of these bawlers,
let him rave on at my New Testament, till he hath made
himself hoarse and out of breath. Then ask him gently
whether he hath read it. If he hath the impudence to
say, yes ; urge him to produce one passage that deserves to
be blamed. You will find that he cannot. Consider now
\vhether this be the behaviour of a Christian, or suitable
to the profession of a monk, to blacken before the populace
a mans reputation, which they cannot restore to him
again, though they should attempt it, and thus to rail at
thiugs of which they are entirely ignorant ; never con-
sidering the declaration of St. Paul, that slanderers shall
not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Of all the vile ways

604 ERASMUS.

of defaming a man, none is more villanons than to accuse
him of heresy ; and yet to this they have recourse upon
the shghtest provocation. As amongst the Swiss, if one
of the multitude hfts uj) his finger, and gives the signal,
all the rest, as they say, do the same, and run to pillage ;
so when one of this monkish herd hath begun to grunt,
all the rest grunt also, and stir up the populace to stone
their enemies, forgetting the character which they assume,
and making it their only occupation to throw dirt at
honest men."

In 1520 Leo X. published his bull against Luther, and
Erasmus writes thus :

" Would to God he had followed my counsel, and had
abstained from odious and seditious proceedings ! he would
then have done more good and have incurred less hatred.
It would be no great matter that one man should perish ;
but if these people (the monks) get the better, they will
never rest till they have ruined literature "

It was affirmed, that Erasmus had written a treatise,
called The Captivity of Babylon, although Luther openly-
acknowledged it for his own. Others would have it, that
Luther had taken many of his sentiments from Erasmus.
"I see now," says Erasmus, "that the Germans (the Ger-
man Lutherans) are resolved, at all adventures, to engage
me in the affair of Luther, whether I will or not. In this
they have acted foolishly, and have taken the surest method
to alienate me from them and their party. Wherein could
I have assisted Luther, if I had declared myself for him,
and shared the danger along with him ? Only thus far,
that instead of one man, two would have perished. I
cannot conceive what he means by writing with such a
spirit : one thing I know too well, that he hath brought
a great odium upon the lovers of literature. It is true,
that he hath given us many a wholesome doctrine, and
many a good counsel ; and I wish he had not defeated the
effect of them by his intolerable faults. But if he had
written every thing in the most unexceptionable manner,
I had no inclination to die for the sake of truth. Every

ERASMUS. 605

man hath not the courage requisite to make a martyr ;
and I am afraid, that if I were put to the trial, I shoidd
imitate St. Peter."

He gives rather an unfavourable report of some of the
reformers. " Evangelical liberty is the cry and the pretence ;
but all have not the same point in view. There are, who,
under this plausible plea, want an unbounded license to
satisfy the lusts of the flesh. There are who envy the
riches of the ecclesiastics, and who, consuming their own
patrimony in drinking, whoring, and gaming, want to lay
hands on the goods of other people. There are, whose
situation and condition is such, that the public welfare
must be their ruin. There are likewise some, who wish
that the useless innovations, which are crept into the
Church, might be corrected gradually, gently, and peace-
ably. When all is thrown into confusion, each will seize
what suits him best, as when a city is on fire."

In 1519 a collection of Erasmus's letters was published,
which gave him, as he pretends, much vexation. As he
had spoken freely in them on m.any important points, he
could not avoid giving offence. The monks especially, as
enemies to literature, exclaimed violently against them ;
and whea the Lutheran contentions broke out, these let-
ters were still more censured than before, and accused of
favouriug Lutherauism; at a time when, as he says, it was
neither safe to speak, nor to keep silence. He adds, that
he would have suppressed those letters, but that Froben
would not consent : but in this, says Jortin, he could,
hardly speak seriously, since Froben was too much his
friend to print them without his consent. In 1522 he
published the works of St. Hilary. " Erasmus," says
Dupin, " when he published his editions of the fathers,
joined to them prefaces and notes full of critical discern-
ment : and, though he may sometimes be too bold in
rejecting some of their works as spurious, yet it must be
confessed, that he has opened and shewed the way to all
who have followed him." He had lately published also at
Basil his celebrated " Colloquies," which he dedicated to
3l 2

COrj ERASMUS.

John Erasmus Froben, son to John Froben, and his god-
son. He drew up these " Colloquies," partly that young
persons might have a book to teach them the Latin tongue,
and religion and morals at the same time ; and partly, to
cure the bigoted world, if he could, of that superstitious
devotion which the monks so industriously propagated.
The liveliest strokes in them are aimed at the monks and
their superstition ; on which account they had no sooner
appeared, than a most outrageous clamour was raised
against them. He was accused of laughing at indulgences,
auricular confession, eating fish upon fast-days, &c., and it
is certain he did not talk of these matters with much
respect. The faculty of theology at Paris passed a general
censure, in 1526, upon the Colloquies of Erasmus, as
upon a work in which " the fasts and abstinences of the
Church are slighted, the suffrages of the Holy Virgin and
of the saints are derided, virginity is set below matrimony,
Christians are discouraged from monkery, and grammatical
is preferred to theological erudition ; and therefore decreed,
that the perusal of that wicked book be forbidden to all,
more especially to young people, and that it be entirely
suppressed, if possible." In 1537, Pope Paul III. chose
a select number of cardinals and prelates, to consider
about reforming the Church ; who, among other things,
proposed that young people should not be permitted to
learn Erasmus's Colloquies. A provincial council also,
held at Cologne in 1549, condemned these Colloquies, as
not fit to be read in schools. Yet they must be allowed
to contain a treasure of wit and good sense, and though
they were intended as only a school book, are not unworthy
the perusal of the most advanced in knowledge. Colineus
reprinted them at Paris in 1527 ; and, by artfully giving
out that they were prohibited, sold, it is said, above four-
and-twenty thousand of one impression. It is a work
which might be, with profit, translated and circulated at
the present time.

Adrian VI. having succeeded Leo in the see of Rome,
Erasmus dedicated to him an edition of a commentary of

ERASMUS. 607

Arnobius upon the psdms ; and added to it an epistle, in
which he congratulates this new pope, and entreats him
not to pay any regard to the calumnies spread against
his humble servant, without first giving him a hearing.
Adrian returned him an elegant and artful letter of thanks,
exhorting him strongly to write against Luther, and in-
viting him to Rome. Erasmus wrote a second time, and
offered to communicate to Adrian his opinion upon the
fittest methods to suppress Lutheranism ; for he enter-
tained some hopes that his old friend and school-fellow
might possibly do some good. Adrian sent him word that
he should be glad to have his opinion upon this affaii- ;
and invited him a second time to Rome. Erasmus excused
himself from the journey on account of his bad health,
and other impediments ; but certainly did not repose sucii
confidence in Adrian, as to trust himself in his hands.
He tells his holiness, that he had neither the talents nor
the authority requisite for answering Luther with any
prospect of success. He then proceeded to the advice he
had promised : and, L He disa])proves of all violent and
cruel methods, and wishes that some condescension were
shewed to the Lutherans. 2. He thinks that the causes
of the evil should be investigated, and suitable remedies
applied ; that an amnesty should ensue, and a general
pardon of all that was past; and that then the princes and
magistrates should take care to prevent innovations for
the future. 3. He thinks it needful to restrain the liberty
of the press. 4. He would have the pope to give the
world hopes, that some faults should be amended, which
could be no longer justified. 5. He would have him
assemble persons of integrity and abilities, and of all
nations. — Here Erasmus breaks off in the middle of a
sentence, intending to say more at another time, if the
pope were willing to hear it. But he had already said too
much. Adrian utterly disliked his advice ; and Erasmus's
enemies took this opportunity of plotting his ruin : but
the death of the pope soon after put a stop to their con-
trivances. Yet as the monks reported in all places that

608 ERASMUS.

iM-asmus was a Ijutberan, he took much pains by his
letters to undeceive the pubUc, and satisfy his friends.
With this view he wrote, in 1523, to Henry VII. and to
the pope's legate in England. Cuthbert Tonstall sent
him a letter and exhorted him to answer Luther ; and,
unable any longer to withstand the importunate solicita-
tions of the Romanists, he sent word to the King that he
was drawing up a piece against Luther. This was his
" Diatribe de libero arbitrio," which was published the
following year. But this gave no satisfaction at all to the
Romanists ; and, although he could have proved Luther
erroneous in his notion of free-will, this had nothing to do
with the dispute between Luther and the pope, and the
Romanists therefore thought themselves very little obliged
to him.

Adrian dying this year, he was succeeded by Clement
YIL, who sent to Erasmus an honourable diploma, accom-
panied with two hundred florins. He invited him also to
Rome, as his predecessors had done : but " at Rome,"
says Erasmus, " there are many who want to destroy me,
and they had almost accomplished their purpose before
the death of Adrian, iifter having, at his own request,
communicated to him my secret opinion, I found that
things were altered, and that I was no longer in favour."
The cause was manifest, says Jortin : Erasmus had hinted
at the necessity of a reformation ; and such language was
highly disgusting at the court of Rome. If Luther did
not like Erasmus, because Erasmus approved not in all
things either his doctrine or his conduct, the court of
Rome liked him as little, because he did not condemn.
Luther in all things : yet it thought proper to give him
good words and promises, and to entice him thither if
possible ; where he would have been in their power, and
no better than a prisoner at large.

In 1524, Luther, upon a rumour probably that Erasmus
was going to wiite against him, sent liim a letter, full of
fire and spirit ; which gives so just an idea of both Luther
and Erasmus, that the reader shall be presented with a

ERASMUS. 600

portion of it. He begins in the apostolical manner :
" Grace and peace to you from the Lord Jesus. I shall
not complain of you for having behaved yourself as a man
alienated from us, for the sake of keeping fair with the
papists, our enemies ; nor was I much offended, that
in your printed books, to gain their favour, or to soften
their fury, you censured us with too much acrimony. We
sav/ that the Lord had not conferred upon you the discern-
ment, the courage, and the resolution, to join with us in
freely and openly opposing those monsters ; and therefore
we durst not exact from you what greatly surpasseth your
strength and your capacity. We have even borne with
your weakness, and honoured that portion of the gift of
God which is in you." Then, having bestowed upon him
his due praises, as a reviver of good literature, by means
of which the Holy Scriptures had been read and examined
in the originals, he proceeds thus : "I never wished, that,
deserting your own province, you should come over to
our camp. You might, indeed, have favoured us not a
little by your wit and eloquence : but, forasmuch as you
have not the courage which is requisite, it is safer for you
to seive the Lord in your own way. Only we feared, that
our adversaries should entice you to write against us, and
that necessity should then constrain us to oppo-e you to
your face. — I am concerned, as well as you, that the
resentment of so many eminent persons of your party
hath been excited against you. I must suppose that this
gives you no small uneasiness : for virtue like yours, mere
human virtue, cannot raise a man above being affected by
such trials. I could wish, if it were possible, to act the
part of a mediator between you, that they might cease to
attack you wdth such animosity, and suffer your old age to
rest in peace in the Lord : and thus they would act, if
they either considered your weakness, or the greatness of
the cause in dispute, which hath been long since beyond
your talents. They would shew their moderation towards
you so much the more, since our affairs are advanced to
such a point, that our cause is in no peril, though even

CIO ERASMUS.

Erasmus should attack it with all his might : so far are
we from dreading the keenest strokes of his wit. On the
other hand, my dear Erasmus, if you duly reflect upon
your own imbecility, you will abstain from those sharp
and spiteful figures of rhetoric ; and, if you cannot defend
your sentiments, will treat of subjects which suit you
better. Our friends, as you yourself will allow, have rea-
son to be uneasy at being lashed by you, because human
infirmity thinks of the authority and reputation of Eras-
mus, and fears it ! and indeed there is much difference
between him and other papists, he being a more formidable
adversary than all of them put together." This letter
vexed Erasmus not a little, as may easily be imagined,
and he wrote an answer to it ; but the answer is not in
the collection of his epistles.

In 1525 he published his " Diatribe de libero arbitrio,"
already noticed, which Luther replied to, in a treatise en-
titled "De servo arbitrio." In this he mixes compliment,
praise, scorn, insult, ridicule, and invective, together ; at
which Erasmus was much provoked, and immediately wrote
a reply, which was the first part of his " Hyperaspistes :"
the second was published in 1527. The year after he
published two treatises, in the way of dialogue, entitled,
'• The pronunciation of the Greek and Latin languages,"
and " The Ciceronianus." In the former, which is one
of the most learned of all his compositions, are contained
very curious researches into the pronunciation of vowels
and consonants ; in the second, which is one of the most
lively and ingenious, he rallies agreeably some Italian
purists, who scrupled to make use of any word or phrase
which was not to be found in Cicero : not that he con-
demned either Cicero or his manner of writing, but only
the servility and pedantry of his imitators, which he
thought, and very justly, deserving of ridicule. On the
contrary, when Froben engaged him, the very same year,
to revise a new edition of the Tusculan Questions, he pre-
fixed to it an elegant preface, in which he highly extols
Cicero, both for his style and moral sentiments, and

ERASMUS. 611

almost makes a saint of him ; and Julius Scaliger, who
censured Erasmus for his treatment of the Ciceronians,
declared afterwards, that he was willing to forgive him his
blasphemies, and to be at peace with him thenceforward,
for the sake of this preface ; which he considered as a kind
of penance, and of satisfaction made to the manes of the
Eoman orator.

In April, 15 '2 9, Erasmus departed from Basil, where he
thought himself no longer safe, and went to Friburg,
where at first he had apartments belonging to the King,
but afterwards bought a house. Here, in 1531, he had a
sight of the first oration of Julius Scaliger against his
" Ciceronianus;" all the copies of which, or at least as
many as he could, Erasmus is said to have collected
and destroyed. "There is something," says Dr. Jortin,
" ridiculously diverting in the pompous exclamations and
tragical complaints of Scaliger. One would imagine at
least, that Erasmus had called Cicero fool, or knave :
and yet all his crime was, to have besprinkled the servile
imitators of Cicero with a little harmless banter." After
the first oration, Scaliger composed a second, more scur-
rilous if possible than the first : but it was not published
till after Erasmus's death, in 1537.

Erasmus now began to complain to his friends, and to
represent himself as quite worn down wdth age, pain, and
sickness ; and in 1535 he returned to Basil, to try if he
could recover his health, where he continued ever after.
This year Bembus congratulates him upon the high regard
which the pope had for him ; and hopes that it would end
in great preferment, by which he probably meant a car-
dinal's hat. The enemies of Erasmus have affirmed, that
the court of Rome never designed him such a favour ; but
Erasmus has affirmed the contrary, and says, " that having
written to Paul III., that pope, before he had unsealed his
letter, spoke of him in the most honourable manner : that
he had resolved to add to the college of cardinals some
learned men, of whom he might make use in the general
coimcil, which was to be called ; and I," says Erasmus,

012 ERASMUS.

" was named to be one. But to my promotion it was
objected, that my bad state of health would make me unfit
for that function, and that my income was not sufficient:
so at present they think of loading me with preferments,
that I may be qualified for the red hat." He declares,
however, that his health would not permit him to accept
such favours, since he could scarce stir out of his chamber
with safety ; and he refused every thing that was offered
him.

He had been ill at Fribiirg, and continued so at Basil.
In the summer of 1530 he grew worse; and the last letter
which we have of his writing is dated June the :iOth of
that year. He subscribes it thus, *' Erasmus Rot. a3gra
manu." He was for almost a month ill of a dysentery ;
and he knew that his disease would prove fatal. He
had foreseen for several months, that he could not hold
out long; and he foretold it again three days, and then
two days, before his death. He died July 1:^, in the sixty-
ninth year of his age ; and was buried in the cathedral
church of Basil, where his tomb is to be seen, \s ith a Latin
inscription on the marble, of which a copy is inseited in
the first volume of his works. He had made his will in
February, in which he left handsome legacies to his
friends, and the remainder to be distributed to relieve the
sick and poor, to marry young women, and to assist young
men of good characters : by which it appeared that he was
not in low circumstances, nor so bad an economist as he
sometimes, between jest and earnest, represented him-
self.— Jortbis Life of Erasmus, iiJiich is for the most part
a translation of Le Clerc. Kniyhts Life.

EN1> <}V THE FOLHTH VOLUME.

lihOkGK CUAWSHAW, rUlJSTKB, LliJiDS.

P.'l'.'iceton Theoloqical Seminary Libra

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